Peripheral Neuropathy-like symptoms (tingling) in feet and lower legs and Nortriptyline dilema

[YogiBerra]

I was prescribed Nortriptyline almost 30 years ago for sleep maintenance. In 2019 I stopped taking after reducing it to 10 mg. In a matter a few days I developed tingling in my hands and feet. My primary care physician put me back on it and the symptoms cleared up. Then in 2021 I meticulously titrated it down to 1 mg and I began to have similar symptoms. This second time when I increased the dosage the symptoms did not subside. I have all sorts of tests (blood work and MRIs) and no cause has been determined. My neurologist prescribed Gabapentin which reduced the symptoms a bit. A few months ago he asked me to begin to reduce my Notriptyline dosage from 25 mg. I am now at 20 mg and plan to go to 15 mg, then 10 mg and report back to the neurologist. Nortriptyline is sometimes prescribed to treat neuropathy. I read "If you were taking it to help with pain, you may notice that the original pain returns and/or worsens upon withdrawal. Even if you were not taking it to treat pain, you may experience some soreness as your body readjusts to functioning without this drug." I'm at a loss as what to do.

[Sissy62]

Hello! I was on Gabapentin for 6 weeks and when the dose was increased to cover me all day…I had a complete result. I took 100 mg in the morning and another 100 at lunch, then 300mg at bed. I had no pain while on this routine. After 6 weeks, I was tapered off and the ON was gone. This was my first ON headache and I’ve not had another. I do sometimes feel like it may be coming back, but so far it hasn’t. I’m now 3 months pain free. Hope you get more relief.

[YogiBerra in reply to Sissy62]

Thanks. Good to hear you results. My issue is peripheral neuropathy in my feet and lower legs. I take 200 mg of Gabapentin at noon and 600 mg at night. I helps but only mitigates. The culpert may be Nortriptyline which is quite complicated.

[Unhappydog1]

Sometimes it was in my case I was taking Pregablin. I thought it was for my neuropathy relief which was way down. The psychiatrist said there was an anti anxiety component and that I might had gone off it too quickly. The reality was I was going to a new agency for treatment of melanoma. That stress and others in my life kicked me over into high high anxiety . I wasn’t told before of the anti anxiety relief that I had stopped( Pregablin) and it might have adverse reaction . I ended up in psyche ward for the afternoon I went back on Pregablin . This is my experience and I take some responsibility for not talking to my doctor about withdrawing I also would hope these doctors and scientists would come up with some good pain relief medication and not labelling degenerates or crazy because they don’t know how to deal with it.

I beleave the answer is inside us all . Look outside. Does it look like our society is flourishing in the whole. Sorry for rant but 12 years of painful neuropathy makes me think outside problems are mostly beyond our control. The real you never changes and is always truth.