I was previously on Neurontin and felt that it helped for a while and over time the effects slowly went away so my dose was increased and increased until I got to 900mg 3 times a day. It got to the point where it wasn't working anymore. Then I was on nortyptiline for migraines, but it didn't help. Do you think it is worth it for me to try the 2 in combo?? Or is it a waste of time and money?

CiCi

Greetings, CiCi. Here's a link to the summary of a study recommending the combination: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19796802
The difference between the combo and each drug separately isn't huge, but the researchers regard it as substantial. (And it's worked well for me.) But I haven't been able to find anything about the staging of the two--for instance, does it make a difference which one you start on? And if you're on a high dose of gabapentin (aka neurontin), and you add nortriptyline, can you then cut back on the gabapentin? I hope you can get good advice from a doctor you trust--though that's a struggle in itself for most of us.

Both drugs are available as generics, and on my insurance plan, they're pretty cheap. But I'm lucky to have a good insurance plan through my employer.

Lynn

Do you? Not trying to be a smart*** here; only you know what you're experience has been and what your pain is now.

As with any medication decision, it's about benefit vs. risk. Personally, I think it would at least be worth looking into, and then if you think it worth pursuing, take a copy of the study (and any other documentation/evidence) to your doctor and discuss it.

Doc

FWIW, I took amitriptyline (30 mg/day) and gabapentin (2000 mg/day) for many years. The amitriptyline had a sexual side effect that I didn't care for, so earlier this year I changed it to tramadol (200 mg/day) and am much happier with that. My level of pain relief is about the same, and I am not aware of any side effects from either, except possibly a mild cognitive and memory impairment. Or maybe that's just the real me, who knows.
Ron

hi Marie33
How are you doing with your meds?
Sorry I was away fro this site a few days.
Regarding what you were asking me regarding the combination of Lyrica and Amitriptyline. My neuropathy neuro dr. says he would recoment higher dose of Amitriptyline. But, I tell you, since my last post regarding this( must be a long time ago!) things has changed. I first started with Amitriptyline 10 mg for 2 weeks, then increase to 20 mg. And I am on Lyrica 100 mg in am, 100 mg at 2 pm and 150 mg at bed time. So then they started to increase it to 25 and then up to 50 mg. That was intolerable!! All my glands of any kind of liquid in my body closed up dry mouth, nose, eyes and every thing. So I went down to 30 mg, which I have been on for a while, but dr, sais to try to slowly increase it to 40. I tryed, but my throat closes up with hard mucus plugs at night, it is dangerous. I am down to 30 mg
You asked regarding how slowly I increased the dose, the neuro said verre slowly every 3 weeks or so
Regarding hair loss. Yes I do have a fair amount of hair loss, but I do not know if it is fram Lyrica, could be another symptom of some king of autoimmune condition.
I hope you have gotten answers to your dosing problems by now. I hope the medicine is working for you