Ibs

[matches123]

Morning just been prescribed amitriptyline for my ibs anyone taken these and what were the results please

[FRreedman]

I was prescribed these to act as neuropathic pain relief, unfortunately, they didn't, but they left me with feelings of not being with it, and slightly spaced out so had to be changed to Nortriptyline, which are great as pain relief and no side effects.

[matches123 in reply to FRreedman]

Thanks

[Suze109]

Hi there. I’d agree. I got prescribed them for IBs with muscle cramps. They did reduce muscle pain and cramps, but even taking them at night or just taking 1/2tab left me feeling very spacey and out of it. I’ve kept the packet on hand in case I get a massive, terrible flare up but I felt I couldn’t work, drive or really function if I took them.

[matches123 in reply to Suze109]

Thanks

[Munchkinfeet]

I felt awful on amitriptyline, couldn't function, some days I couldn't drive and my speech was slurred. It gave me nightmares too and my sleep was terribly disturbed for the first few weeks.

I saw my my consultant recently (I've not been diagnosed with IBS as they think i have some autoimmune thing going on, but my official diagnosis is "bowel spasms and neuropathy"), and he prescribed gabapentin instead. I can't take it because it has lactose and I'm on low fodmap diet, so we changed it to pregabalin, too early to say if it is working.

What I would say is, everyone is different and amitriptyline may work for you, it's worth a try but be aware of the significant side effects you may experience. Good luck

[187MK in reply to Munchkinfeet]

I wonder if you could describe the symptoms you have with bowel dysfunction and neuropathy. When I get an attack all the nerves in my abdomen and round my back seem to get sore and ache so that I am slow walking.

[Munchkinfeet in reply to 187MK]

My nerves misfire, I guess, with really odd stimuli. I never feel hungry or desire food. I've lost so much weight. Sometimes just talking about food, or preparing food can send me into spasm. Or I can have diarrhoea just after drinking water. You can't feel the nerves, so its the spasms you're feeling. Sometimes it's during the night, there's no pattern to it. Anxiety or stress doesn't seem to make it worse. Certain food types are a trigger, so I'm doing fodmap just now. When I have a lot of diarrhoea I pass blood and a lot of mucous and undigested food as the transit is just too fast. Bowel movements can be painful and I get rectal pain a lot. I have neuropathy at night in my hands and legs, they haven't explored if its related, and also secondary raynaud's. My back, knees and hips hurt too, again not sure if its related but had to give up my running.

I have a referral to gynae to rule out endometriosis and adhesions, as I believe endo in the bowel can cause similar problems x

[187MK in reply to Munchkinfeet]

Thank you for that. It sounds awful for you. I just get pain in my back from my colon which I believe must be all I flamed after eating something it didn't like. I thought I had solved it by going almost gluten free but back it all came. I have used the fodmap diet for years. Thank you for explaining the neuropathy symptoms. I hope you get help with that soon.

[matches123]

Thanks it is only 20 mgs but very reluctant to take it

[187MK in reply to matches123]

I find half a tablet ie 5mg is enough for me as I am very sensitive to drugs so maybe you could try that. I just bite the tablet in half.

[SueFML]

I get on fine with them take 1 - 25mg every night, it calms my bowels down.

They don't suit everybody but I have not had any ill effects with them, been on them 10 years.

[Spencermm]

What's the milligram?

If memory serves, the typical antidepressant dose is 75mg +. The typical ibs dose is 10 to 25mg.

It will very likely make you feel different, but most mosg side effects pass in a week or 2.

I read up on this med for ibs a lot. I'd guess at least half of the patient reports were positive, and some were glowing. Imo, that warrants trying it for a month or 2, unless you have an extreme reaction to it.

The negative placebo effect is a real thing. Some say it can account for up to 20% of a medications effectiveness. It's for this reason that I almost don't want to tell you that I had a less than pleasant reaction to this med, but I have a long history of doing extremely poorly on all antidepressants.

It's almost cliche to say that everyone is different, but it is SO true. I say give it a go.

[Briggsy0304]

Helps massively for my nausea, pain as well as urgency/consistency/frequency of stools. I take 25mg at night. It's been a life saver for me. Do you have IBS-D?

[matches123]

Thanks for that he has prescribed 10 mg for both really d/c