Amatriptyline

[Ronniebongo]

I started amatriptyline about two weeks ago and so far more migraines .. should I stick with it or speak to gp again , has anyone else had this experience?

[Cat00]

I presume you mean Amitriptyline? It's very common for migraine preventative meds to cause more migraines initially, generally you want to give these things 6 weeks, sometimes more. Botox for example cannot be judged unsuccessful until you had 4 to 6 months, so if possible I would hang in there.

[purge63]

I have tried around 20 different preventatives, ranging from repurposed drugs like amitriptyline , to botox ,CGRP injectable and gepants .In my experience, any drug that made the migraines worse didn't improve the situation over time .

Amitriptyline didn't help me but it didn't exacerbate things either .

CGRP blockers on the other hand - whether injectable or gepants - invariably made things worse and I couldn't continue with them .

We are all different though , and some people may have benefitted from treatments that initially exacerbated the problem

[Ronniebongo in reply to purge63]

On a good note I’m sleeping very well and so far it’s stopped my restless legs which I’ve been told to avoid amitriptyline as it can make it a lot worse ! I’m feeling a lot better today so I’ll stick with it and hopefully see some improvement on next months burst of migraines 🙏

[Pompom6]

Ah yes I was put on this, started low dose then built up. Lower dose I was still getting headaches or migraines, when I went up to 30mg everyday I got really sick and got a lot of the reported side effects. Thought I had really bad flu and nearly went to hospital as I felt so bad, but realised it was the amitriptyline so clearly doesn't suit me. Realise my sleeping in retrospect was slightly better but not worth the bad side effects. But it might completely suit you if you stick with it, some call it a miracle drug!

[Ronniebongo in reply to Pompom6]

yes I will give it a go , I tried topiramate last month and had a cold and cough from day one .. just thought I was run down .. then I blacked out and woke up on the bathroom floor 🥴feeling better this week on the amitriptyline , I’m ok with the “ milder” migraines that the sumatriptan takes away it’s just the big one every month when I’m bed ridden .. so any reduction in that and I’ll be happy .. and so far no restless legs 🙏 it’s heaven 😁🤞