The burning symptoms I've experienced have been worse since I started Nortriptyline. Not sure if its the medication or natural PN progression. I'm up to 50 mg a day right now but I think I'm going to ween off over the next couple weeks and see what happens.

The burning really makes my skin feel sensitive and is worse when pressure is applied.

I'll be starting Gabapentin tomorrow and hope to have some overlap of the 2 medications as I ween off the Nortrtptyline. Being in the investigative phase is frustrating as you drive yourself crazy trying to figure out cause and effects of medication, vitamins, and food.

You could probably use the search feature and see what others who have had problems with N. have said, maybe even what helped resolved it or what worked in place of it. Might offer you some clues. Just a thought, good luck to you.

Nortriptyline actually reduced the burning symptoms for me, but what really helped was adding a low dose of gabapentin. So--maybe the overlap period will bring relief for you.

I believe also that the Gabapentin will help considerably. I'm on Lyrica and it took months for the dosage to get me to the point of relief! You will get there too.

I think it's possible that prior to starting Nortriptyline you really noticed your pain when it was acting up badly. Otherwise you went about your business. Once you were given Nortriptyline you were expecting pain relief. Subconsciously your mind may be checking in on your pain more often, and as a result of that reminder you become aware of your pain more often and more intensely. Just a theory. Ignore it if I'm way off the mark.

I think the hard part of trying to evaluate the Nortriptyline is that I'm early in the disease progression and things have been changing pretty rapidly, so it's hard to attribute symptoms or relief to anything in particular. I'm just trying to run through the timeline and see what I was doing when certain symptoms progressed or regressed. I've been keeping a weekly journal but I should probably do a daily one.

Nortriptyline works in the brain...not in your feet. It acts on the pain loop that uses serotonin as a neurotransmitter in the perceptual areas of pain perception.

It does not sit on the mu receptors like opiates and tramadol, though.