Amitriptyline

[Sweetlucy]

Has anyone tried Amitriptyline for sciatica? I was taking 60mg at night. It helped me sleep but did nothing for the pain. I can't see the point of taking a drug as a sleeping pill so have tried to reduce the dosage gradually. I'm now down to 25mg over a couple of weeks. Now I'm awake all night and the pain is awful. Has anyone else tried reducing this drug. Perhaps it needs to be done more slowly. My GP said there's no need to taper done. I'd love to hear from others.

[GuitarAngel]

I was taking Amitriptyline for about four months for nerve and sciatica pain in legs. I took 20mg each night. Was so tired I couldn’t get up hardly in the mornings. Did nothing for pain I cut them down gradually over about three weeks. Feel better now I’ve given them up .(sleepiness) I put on a black out eye mask from Amazon helps get to sleep.

[Hidden]

I took it for trapped nerve and it made me feel like my skin was on fire so I stopped it.

[gemm27]

I was given this when I had bad sciatica a few months ago. I was literally bed bound, moving around put me in excruciating pain. They did absolutely nothing so I just stopped them and went back to the doctor and got some naproxen instead. It was almost instant relief and it was so much better after 2 weeks

[fyub--]

I’ve taken 25mg sometimes 50mg for many years now for Cervical Spondylitis and find it certainly helps me.

[Macblank]

Amitriptyline is not a pain pill. It's a relaxation pill... In other words, it's to help you relax n sleep.

It has some unpleasant side effects, that some can't deal with, especially when on higher doses..... I used to take 100mg a night, but got fed up of the side effects. Constant dry mouth, waking up was so hard to do each morning, and felt groggy all day.... But that's me!

I tried NORTRIPTYLINE, it's not quite as nasty as amitriptyline, but for me, it wasn't helping to sleep much. Now I'm on mirtazipine, which after 4/5 months of taking, finally kicked in and they help me sleep (not always, but enough of the time) but again, waking is such hard work (not the middle of the night tho!) when I NEED to get up.

These drugs are DOWNERS. it's why so many druggies n drinkers abuse them, as it's the only way they can come down!

These pills n group of pills, are to help relax your muscles and thus aid sleep.

To treat the pain from sciatica, you need pain killers.

[Doghouse6463 in reply to Macblank]

Amitriptyline is actually a tricyclic antidepressant which has been found to have many uses among them being a good pain killer for neuropathic pain and is widely used in the treatment of fibromyalgia

[Robertnurse]

Hi

If it helped you to sleep then surely it gave you relief from pain as you were sleeping ?

The side effects can often leave you feeling fatigued and generally rubbish during the day. Not good if you have to work or look after a family etc.

I'm still on mine as I'm retired due to I'll health and my kids are grown. Why ?? Because they allow me a few hrs sleep at night. If I'm asleep I'm not feeling the pain. Hurts like hell when I wake up though.

[neilcardiff]

ive been on Amitriptyline 45mg now for nearly two years for constant pain i get in neck and lower spine find it works well think its worth keeping them going do help

[bantam12]

I've been prescribed amitriptyline for pelvic pain but after reading up on it I'm not even going to start them, If they only help with sleep then I don't need them and I won't manage the numerous side effects, I already have profound fatigue, headaches and heart problems without taking them !!

[cyberbarn]

As others have said, amitriptyline at low doses is very good for nerve pain. But there is something called the Number Needed to Treat (NNT) which means how many people have to take a drug for one person to get benefit. The NNT for amitriptyline is between around 4, so for one person to get benefit, four has to take it. Now, that isn't that you have to get three of your neighbours to take it to make it work in yourself!

What happens is that different people metabolise drugs differently. So for some, a drug will work in the way it is intended, and for others it will do nothing.

So if amitrip isn't working for you, then it isn't the right drug for you. there are other choices of drugs that do similar things that you can try, so go back to your GP and discuss it with them. Or, if you have a pharmacist in your GP surgery you might like to have a word with them.

[Sweetlucy]

I upped the dose last night to 45mg and fell asleep at 5.30am. I woke at 1pm and the pain is less today. Sleep is the greatest healer.i need to see my GP but to be honest he has run out of options. I've tried the lot with no luck

[Pollyannna]

H I take ami along with pain meds to help stop painful spasms and it works really well, however I have now had some nerve block injections and they work so have stopped taking ami, its taken me 2-3 weeks to be able to sleep I mainly get 6-7 hours now and a 8-9 hour night evert 10 ish days.

I have been on ami for about 5 years previously and still take 1 with pregabalin n paracetamol when the pain beats me occasionally.

Feel great in the mornings now though without ami. So good luck & keep going if you can

[Emma2017]

Hi there it was the first drug they tried after I was diagnosed with a herniated disc causing bad sciatica (before it turned into the slow onset cauda equine) and I took it but found it did nothing. But I was told I had to give it some time. After a few more days I started noticing it actually made things worse by giving me terrible restless legs (both) and making the sciatica worse. I was taken of it and put on dihydrocodeine which helped somewhat. I later was put on pregabalin (after gabapentin) which is the only drug that has tamed the sciatica somewhat.