Just started Amitriptyline, 5 mg. per night, and I do see a difference. I'm now tapering off of Lyrica. Tapering down off it by 25 mg. every 4 days per Dr. Down from 400 mg. of Lyrica to 350 in last week. Hope to get off Lyrica as after 6 months I still have side effects of memory problems and feeling High half the day. I also have had a problem with Itching which we thing might be due to Lyrica. So, only way to know if the Lyrica is causing itching is to stop it.

Wish me luck, hope Amitriptyline keeps working for me like it has for all of you.

Ok, I just re-read this thread, and the article cited about the regenerative potential (which was from 6/09).

I tried the experiment of stopping the R-Lipoic, and the burning began to return, so I got back on it pronto, and so-far, so-good. (only emote w/crossed finners....)

I'm getting ready to have a confab with my doc and hit him up for a scrip for amitriptyline. Now since the R-Lipoic is addressing the pain/burning, the main (only) reason I want to add the amitriptyline is for the regenerative potential, and hopefully beat this thing, or at least feel some improvement. So my questions are:

Does anyone have any other links/citations of articles about this topic since 6/09?

Does anyone think it's actually working for them in this manner (i.e. are you getting better/feeling back)?

I was prescribed amitriptyline once before, and stopped it due to side effects, but that was years ago, and I don't recall the dosage. What dosage would I need for just the regen effects (and hopefully avoid the nasty side effects?

Doc

It is possible the lipoic acid is enabling mitochrondrial functions.

This supplement is combined with acetyl carnitine for that purpose in the product Juvenon.

So if that is true for you...and this is only a guess, you may need it daily from this day forward, as your own system is flawed for some reason. (aging is often pointed to for mito decay). Lipoic acid is a natural substance our bodies make, and may decline with age.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15919137

I would continue with what works for you. After a year on the lipoic, you might try stopping it to see what happens.

Do you know for sure you have nerve damage... and not just aging mitochondria? These factors are relatively new, and there would have to be more research in the future to clarify things.

I wouldn't add amitriptyline unless you really need it. Since the lipoic works, you seem okay with that so far.

Maybe I'm not reading it right, but it looks like that link is saying 100 mg/kg bw/day for 30 days (plus 3 x as much carnitine). That's like 11,400 mg/day - a lot of Lipoic acid.

Yep, they tell me from the zap test I gots da nerve damage. Hence I'd like any chance I can to help regrow them. The lipoic is working for now, but since they haven't found a cause (and don't seem to be interested in finding one) if this keeps progressing I can see a time when the lipoic won't work any longer. If I can't reverse it, I'd like to stop it, etc.

Doc

When they do the rats, they always have large doses.
Sometimes the doses on PubMed studies are "strange".

You could contact the doctor... his email is on that abstract.

I think since you have positive results, it doesn't really matter.
Your doses are working for you. That you are feeling better means you needed the lipoic.

The nerve growth factors sound very experimental to me. It is not clear if those were measured on severed nerves in a lab?
Many growth factors are done that way.

The value of the "ami" study is that it was the only TCA with those results. That narrows the field for doctors to choose it.

For you, I'd concentrate on substances that improve mito functions for a while.

Lipoic acid also provides other benefits:
http://www.umm.edu/altmed/articles/a...oic-000285.htm

My first day of clarity. To scared to let the moment go because P/N has bluffed me in the past. For the first time in many months Im feeling pleasurable sensations along with pain at a 2. Without doubt its due to Nortriptolyne and it must be giving me some antidepressant kick even at 25mg and have reduced lyrica from 300 to 150mg. May I just say I was extremely sensitive to this drug and started at .5mg a day and built up to 25.

I tried Elavil which metabolizes into nortiptolyne in the liver ( googled)
Now the difference in the 2 is quite large. The Elavil knocked me out with its sedative effects. Slept for 14 hours where as the nortyptoline has a very minor effect. They both gave me the same pain relief. I would have preferred elavil for the reasons Mrs D indicates however it was Just to strong.

Hoping to kick lyrica altogether.

I knew it! soon as I mention Im feeling better something happens
it may be coincidental but when i started the nortriptolin I immediately noticed a strange sharp jab in my left knee and a small lump the size of the top of the my thumb on the corner of knee cap and increasing pain. I took 25 mg of predisnone yesterday but today it started to swell and now its impossible to straighten it or walk.
The swelling is noticeable but not huge. there is extreme tenderness particularly around the lump

Now Im stuck , i cant get to a doctor cause i cant walk but can get access to a pharmacay (in asia they deliver). I did get gout a lot before neuropathy and had fluid drawn out of the same knee *gout) 2 years ago.

I was prescribed predisnone for the gout, cant tolerate colchicine.

I have no fever and no real pain unless I try to stand or move then its bad

It could be water or gout

What can I do to reduce the swelling?

p.s pretty sure it the drugs since I had the same pain when I first tried elavil but it didnt blow out.

Do they have Salonpas there? I use this topically for arthritis all the time. They will even take down bruises.

Get the ones with methyl salicyclate in them.

Salonpas are big in Asia... so you should be able to find them.

I don't know about the gout... Real uric acid gout will cause redness and heat in the area. But Pseudogout will not necessarily.

All those things give me 'restless leg' of the whole body.

Saw at the rx.list website that Elavil is no longer available in the U. S.

Anybody know why?

Sheltiemom