Hi all. My psychiatrist wants to start me on Amitriptyline for chronic depression and psychosis, next time I see her. She wanted to start me on it last week, but I told her I wanted to research the drug first - which is what I always do.
I'm worried about the side effects I may experience as I seem quite sensitive to medication. I'm very worried about gaining weight. I have an eating disorder, anxiety and OCD... And a lot of my depression is based around how I look and perceive myself.
I assume my psychiatrist start me on a low dose and build it up gradually. What can I expect?
Thank you for any advice
Side effects I've had since May 30-40 mg
Ringing in ears
Hangover effect next day
Dry mouth
Blurry vision
Weight gain
Takes around 4-6 weeks to get full benefit
I take it for long term chronic pain
You may want too tell your psychiatrist your worries as it may not be the right drug for you
For me it's been a great Found it hard at the start I still get tired on it I'm sure others will tell you what it like too
I've been on it for pain for over 16 years, guess it being an antidepressant and great for numbing pain at the nerve end hence stopping it from travelling throughout the body..its also is a bonus being an antidepressant..as with this Fibro we can easily get depressed..I take 25 mg about 7pm...get a great painless sleep..yes it does make you feel a bit numb the next day when you first start to take it...I often feel tired-a side effect..but once I'm about my day it wears off...I have never put weight on with it either..I have never had it increased in all these years..however I was originally put on 50mg per night..I just couldn't function...I was like a zombie all day the next day...they were too strong..having said that..it's very different for different people..so you may be on a different dose.....it's a great medication..many of us Fibro suffers are on it..hope it works well for you...you will get plenty of info on here about it..each of us seem to have different side affects, but that's ok, we are all different anyway....have a lovely day Rachel..God bless..:-)xx
PS..dry mouth in the night seems to be a side effect for all of us..easily remedied with water on your night stand...plus some experience palpitations here and there...I don't.xx
Thank you for your advise guys, hopefully this drug will be able to help me.
Hi
i was on it for nerve pain for 8 months. Very little to no extra benefit over the meds already on but I did put on 2 stone in 2 months and there had been no change in my very healthy diet and overall put on 3 stone in the 8 months. This did affect my mood and nearly gave up my healthy diet but eventually convinced the docs to allow me to stop the drug. Weight gain now stopped. I should have just stopped the drug earlier anyway but do tend to deffer to knowledge of docs even though was causing me lots of problems. The other side effects set me back massively over the 8 months but won't go on about that as the reasons I was prescribed drug different to yours but there are lots and lots of other cases on here of people struggling with weight on this drug and struggling to loose after. I am susceptible to lots of meds so I would say be very careful especially with the othervissues you mentioned, weight gain could set you back. Everyone is different but please search on here further before making up your mind. Good luck