I’ve been taking 10 mg AmyT nightly for last 6 weeks. How long is it safe to take and are there withdrawal problems if I stop? It has given me restful sleep and pain relief and appears to have stopped my many nighttime comfort breaks!
Thanks in advance.🌸🌸
Did the pharmacist give you a paper with info about the drug when you got your prescription?
it's good it's helping you. I appreciate you might want to see what happens if you decide to stop taking it. As I understand it it isn't exactly addictive but should be withdrawn slowly over a few weeks to avoid headaches and generally feeling bad.
The first question is why do you want to stop it if it is helping you?
Hi i have taken amitriptyline for iver 10 years so i think you are ok on the time front for now. With regards to stopping i was advised to cut down gradually by my gp and if i ever missed a dose i got bad nightmares which are a withdrawal symptom. Speak to your gp when you are ready to come off and see what advice they give to avoid withdrawal symptoms. Tgey will prob have you cut fown gradually over a couple of weeks. I am glad you are finding it helpful.YBB
Pastit asked the same.!! I wouldn't be parting with anything that helped me sleep. YBB
I have been on the same dose(10 mgs) for a couple of years. I sleep better these days. My Rheumatologist advised me to cut to cut my tablet in half and then stop after a few weeks. I notice no negative difference on 5 mgs. I don’t want to take anything unnecessary.
If it works for you , you keep taking it , unlike steroids people can stay on it and only really come off it if it stops working even with a dose increase , or if they no longer need it.
You can taper off it and if you are on it long term many people put in Drug Breaks to help maintain the effect of the drug over time.
As SJ says many people will cut the dose by half for a week before coming off it entirely . Then see how they respond .
But six weeks us a short time for this drug, if you aren't having an intolerance to it , it will often have only started to regulate you properly in 4-6 weeks when you have Chronic Pain or Underlying Health issues.
I would advise though , in the current climate , that you may benefit continuing on it until the crisis is over . There is alot more Negative Stress in our situation at the moment and the Amytriptyline may well just be giving you the edge you need to cope with getting better sleep and remaining calm during the day in this situation. It is also used to help your pain relief if you have been suffering from Nerve related Pain or Headaches not just to help you sleep. I would personally hold off a taper on this type of drug until you can do it at a better time with the ability to have easy contact with a GP.
As you know it took me about 6 weeks to cut down amitriptyline whilst a new antidepressant was phased in but i was on a lot higher dose. The only reason it was dropped down was it no longer worked as well for me after being on it so long. I still 25mg for prob with shoulders. YBB
Hi, I was on it for around 20years. I really missed it when I started taking another med for neuropathy. Because they swapped drugs they just told me to stop.
I would have tapered off it if it hadn't been replaced by another drug (changed again as amitrytiline worked better for night pain). At 10 to 50mg I wouldn't worry how long I was taking it. If you are low carbing for pred that will help potential side effects of amitrytiline too. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. You will be starting to get benefit from it more now you are passing the 6 weeks. You may find as times passed you may increase the dose to 20mg but honestly it's such a small dose to the one if was developed to be given (250mg plus I think). They just found low dose helped pain and sleep so that's why it's used for night time sleep.
10mg us a tiny dose. I was on 200mg at one stage!! They kept upping it to try and get me more sleep!! As i took it for so long as an antidepressant it eventually stopped being affective otherwise I would still be taking it. YBB
I only ever took 40mg at highest. I think so gabapentin helps me sleep better, mainly because it controls pain more.
I’ve been on 50mg at night for over 20 years! It was prescribed because I was having horrible sleep and couldn’t stop my brain going nuts when I was trying to get to sleep. I have CFS and it’s fairly common to use Amitriptyline to aid sleep (switched my endlessly wondering brain off!!).
It has been the one thing that has worked for my CFS to be honest and I’m so very grateful for it! My sleep is still a bit rubbish but at least I can get to sleep now!
The other thing I have found is that (as a sleeping aid) when I had to wake in the middle of the night (feeding babies and running to children!) I have never been too foggy to deal with them which was a huge thing for me.
(I started non 10mg but it stopped being effective, increased to 25mg and same thing happened after a year or so but have been on 50mg for years and years now and it’s still awesome)
Hi, I have been taking Amitryptiline for years with no I’ll effects. I used to take much higher strengths, but take now 50 mgs every night for the last 3 years. I have Fibromyalgia and only recently been diagnosed with Polymyalgia Rheumatica. It enables me to have a good nights sleep, which is very important for me. Good luck!
I was prescribed it when I had shingles, but found that it had the added benefit of not having to have so many 'bathroom breaks' in the night and have continued to take it. Some nights I do not wake at all! Bliss!!
Yes, the visits to the loo at various times of the night have definitely reduced! 🌸
Yes I’ ve been taking for peripheral neuropathy and then I had shingles pain( about 14 months ago)I forgot to take it one night , didn’t have any sleep but also no pain. Therefore I dropped the dose slowly from 25 mg to 20 mg( had originally gone up to 30 mg when I had shingles pain and dropped to 25mg after shingles) This was fine for about a week and then I noticed that I could feel pain from peripheral neuropathy so I’ve raised it to 25mg again. I find it very helpful for pain and for sleep.
I took in under the guidance of Professor Dasgupta and took it for over 4 years until I got to 4mg pred when he said I could stop it. I stopped it without any problems. If you do then reduce slowly say every other might at first then increase nights not taking until off it.
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