Elavil.........
 

well, actually the generic of it, is working well for me, I have been able to cut down to 900mg. of Gabby because of it. It does make me tired, but I take
30 mg. at bedtime, works out well........don't need Valium to sleep anymore.

Just wanted to share that, I know some of you are having trouble with tolerance issues with Lyrica and Gabby, as I was experiencing also.

I am glad that is working for you. Elavil remains the best option today for neuropathy because of its potential for healing nerves.

The other drugs do not have that benefit. Most people become used to the sedative actions, and when kept at a low dose, the blurred vision and dry mouth are much less.

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

Thanks for the suggestion mrsD. its 1am here so all closed but will grab some in the morning. Im going to go another moderate dose of predisnone
tomorrow, currently my leg is in the shape of a chicken wing when i try to walk

very little pain laying in the recliner thank goodness.

p.s the knee is warmer but not red

Doesn't make sense; WIKI says it's the most widely used TCA. Did you try Amitriptyline (generic name)? A quick phone call to your local pharmacist should find out.

Doc

http://mental-health.emedtv.com/elav...ic-elavil.html

Many Brand name drugs disappear over time. They may be sold to another company...the brand that is. But when no one wants to pay the costs to make it and charge brand name price...when all insurances basically demand generic... the brand may disappear.

Others that have done this:
Nitro-Bid (nitroglycerine extended release capsules)
Kwell (Lindane)
Rubramin (B12 injection)

Some generics keep the brand name and are more competitive
examples:
Septa DS

King pharmaceuticals is a small company that bought out brand name drugs...often.
This list contains an interesting mix.
http://www.kingpharm.com/Products/Al...l_Products.cfm

I see previous companies products and name from Wyeth, SKF, Glaxo Wellcome (which is now Glaxo Smith Kline), Squibb, Lilly, Parke-Davis, and others on that list.

Elavil was originally a Merck drug, back in 1961. It could be that no one wants to update it to the new FDA regs and keep the name. That costs alot of money and some companies refuse to do it. I forgot who had the patent after Merck. But it was so rarely used as a brand, I am not surprised it is no longer there.

I just picked up a refill today..........
 

Of the generic form of Elavil.

P.S. I live in the US.

I don't know if the brand name is still out there, but I just got a refill for Amitriptyline. Not that it seems to help me at all, but compared to most everything else, it's at least cheap! I'd rather pay a little money for something that doesn't work for me than the whole lot that I'm paying for the other things that don't work for me. :)

Just refilled an rx for Amitriptyline. It's still available in NYC.

MrsD- You commented on ... the potential for healing nerves. I saw something similar in a medical publication and asked my PN specialist about it? He seemed surprised and asked for an exact reference. So I later found it and forwarded it to him. No response. Do you know of any follow-up work or think there is a good avenue for pursuing this?
I currently take 75 MG's each night which dulls the pain for me.

Sorry, it was just a new finding. Takes a while for others to set up studies to confirm.

Is a certain amount needed
 

To produce healing. Would you be able to post the link/info?

That is pretty exciting news.

have now tapered down from 300mg lyrica to 75mg.

have finally settled on amtryptoline very low dose 10mg.

I have less pain then when the doc initially put me on 300mg lyrica and 25mg nortyptoline 2 years ago.

The swelling in my feet has gone down which i suspect was not from neuropathy but lyrica. My worst pain days were when swelling was highest compressing the nerves.

I will have lyrica out of my system next week.

Anyone else tried tapering down without consulting the doc? Just have a feeling that many are taking a large dosage of drugs that may not be effective anymore but continue anyway.

Does a phone call count? My wife has tapered down on a couple of things, but called the doc to inform him. Never encountered any resistance.

Doc

Hello,
I came off of Neurotin by cutting the dose in half every week, also was done with Lyrica, Tramadol and Methadone. These meds are what I have taken intermittently over 6 year span. Have been on amitripyline going into week 2 12mg at night and 12mg in the am plus a baby asprin. Pain is a little higher but way less side effects, bowel is getting back to normal. I let the doctors know after the fact. They were interested in the effects of using Lyrica. If I were starting all over it would be with amitripyline. The best pain killer I have used is Methadone, if the pain level doesn't drop taking amitripyline after 6 weeks will go back to Methadone 10mg twice a day. Don't waste your body on opiates IMO they are trash, ex OXY, VICODIN etc. Having PN IMO requires being a guinea pig since most doctors admit there is no cure if they tell you different run like hell.

I'm considering tapering off of Carbamazepine because the combination of that and Gabapentin make me feel stoned while not reducing my pain. I keep telling the doc that this is the case, but so far he hasn't seemed to consider stopping it.

But I betcha if I said that I liked being stoned, he'd make me stop taking it.:rolleyes:

Question:
 

If the R-Lipoic is working on PN pain & burning, (making gabapentin unnecessary) does/would it make sense to take amitriptyline anyway for this effect?

Doc

I really don't know.

The natural approach is correcting something that was wrong, and doing so very quickly for you.

I think you should continue the lipoic for at least another month, and then stop. See if the symptoms return. If not, that would show healing IMO.

You can take them together, but I would do a test like above, first to learn something about your symptoms.

You might want to try some antioxidants too-- the powerful ones. They also trap free radicals and help with inflammation.

MegaRed Krill oil with the astaxanthin and grapeseed extract.
You can buy the astaxanthin separately now, and neither is expensive. Something to think about.

Lipoic acid also reduces blood sugars and that may be happening too. Lipoic acid is added to "mitochondrial support" supplements to aid acetyl carnitine in them. So it has several functions.

I was thinking benfotiamine next, followed by CoQ-10, spaced apart so I know what's what.

Doc

I've also added Amitriptyline
 

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.

Hi Rose I found Lyrica to be useless after upping the dosage to a point where it stopped working. At that stage I was a 90 year old brain trapped in a 50 year body. The brain fog has finally gone, thought i was going crazy! unfortunately the blurry vision is still with me for now.

here is a heads up about Amitriptyline. It is a brilliant pain reliever at very low dose, almost unbelievable.

However

1.The side effects for me were even worse than lyrica. Total detachment form mind / body.

2. insatiable appetite. A desire not from the mouth but from somewhere deep in the body. I have never experienced this and gained 15kg in the first month.

3. instant loss of libido. Absolutely no interest unless my ice cream was breast shaped.

I now take 10mg maybe once every 2 weeks if Im having a flare or insomnia. Amitriptyline is nasty stuff (for me)

here is website where people rate there use of Amitriptyline. 70% (approx)
do not recommend it and all for the reasons I have stated. some did not get pain relief. The rest absolutely loved it !

http://www.askapatient.com/viewratin...IPTYLINE%20HCL

just want to mention Amitriptyline really helped me taper off lyrica with its strong sedative effect.

The above experience was mine only I really hope this drug works for you :-)

I will just say briefly...I have dispensed amitriptyline for 40yrs+ and never had patient questions or complaints like those that appear on askapatient.

I've viewed that site, and I would caution people to read it with care. I've seen such trollish behavior I cannot believe over there.

Some comments seem legit, but others, appear to be fabricated for fun or mischief IMO.

A much better balance can be found here: Official FDA medwatch reports from healthcare professionals:
http://www.patientsville.com/
type in amitriptyline in the search and reports will come up.

For what it is worth I took a TCA over a decade ago for just over a year for a severe case of sciatica. I used doxepin in low dose for the pain so I could continue working. I took 20mg at bedtime (two 10mg caps). I didn't notice any major problems at all this low dose. It worked well, and my sciatica finally healed up and resolved.

thanks Mrs D for keeping everything balanced. I just want to stress here that it was only my experience. I still would reach out for Amitriptyline as a first choice for a flare, its a strong sedative and pain reliever/sleeping aid, perfect for the job.

Just cant do it full time however dont need to. The Doc opened my eyes to absolute minimal dosage of anything when needed. i thought he was nuts or didnt have any real pain.

The problem IMO is pain killers them selves have serious side effects which tend to keep us in the loop.

I still detest the high dose of lyrica which just made me stoned , but not enough to forget my next dose because its what we have to do.

These drugs are highly dependent and anyone saying they are not hasn't tried to come down off a high dose. Of course we have the super disciplined 25mg a week for 6 months but lets face it most of us arnt like that leading to yo yo side effects and back to original dose whilst we despair.

Amitriptyline is a slow acting drug. Slow to build up and slow to taper off of. At least 2 weeks or more to get going.

It is not like an opiate... at all.

Enjoying the chat mrs D. Your speaking in general , just cant stress enough (for me only)
Nobody can deny how I feel . Its my body.

Neurontin etc is the same, taking weeks or months to work, but some posters feel ill after 600mg. some can tolerate 8x and still have no relief.

Don't know what else to do, so I suck it up...see how long it lasts
 

I used to be on Elavil (Tramadol) to fight the fibromyalgia and it worked very well; I couldn't take it after 3pm 'cuz it would give me sleep apnea. So the administration was only in the morning. I realized this narcotic was only masking the pain so I faded it out of my "diet" and found myself very tired; I guessed it was the withdrawal symptoms. But after just a few weeks, I was okay. I decided to live with the pain that sometimes tells me I should take it easier some days than others... Of course the doctors tried talking me into taking more stuff. I'm not taking anything anymore and it's been years now. The pain from osteoarthritis is slowly incleasing and I live with it: jacuzzi 45 minutes every day... That is all I can do that doesn't have side effects. I guess I'm not hurting enough to try drugs yet... But it takes me a good hour every morning before I feel "soft" enough to get dressed; right away is impossible, even putting my slippers on without pain!

Can you clarify this please? Elavil is amitriptyline.
Ultram is tramadol.

Zorro, your experience of Amitriptyline sounds like my experience with LYRICA! We are all certainly different. I've used Amitriptyline before for another condition and didn't have much problems with it except for its sedating properties. But it was hell to get off of when I was trying to get pregnant.....I mean horrible withdrawl. LYRICA worked wonders for me for about 2 weeks and after that I had to increase it every week. All the side effects without the benefits. It's all about seeing what works for us individually for sure!:winky:

Wow......
 

I was thinking of asking to up dose of Elavil (30mg) so I could lower Gabapentin (900mg), but I think I'll stay where I am since I seem to be holding my own right now. I will say both cause an increased appetite for me, like you said from down within, almost uncontrollable at times, I just sit on my hands and try not to give in!

What scares me more than anything is building a tolerance, I have somewhat to Gabapentin, that is why I added Elavil, I just hope it doesn't happen with Elavil.

ive been taking amitriptylene for almost 2 years now and i have felt no need to increase the dosage.

"But it was hell to get off of when I was trying to get pregnant.."

Lucky your hubby wasnt on it ;)

look its a wonder drug IMHO! if it wasn't for insatiable appetite and loss of libido I would be chewing them like lollies :)

strangely enough my pain is a 3-4 without the drugs. I can suck that up easy .

How much do You take?
 

Sorry if you already mentioned it......didn't look back.....

Do you take any others meds for PN?

I'm doing the opposite.......
 

Sucking up the side effects and taking the benefit of less pain!!

(we are all different in side effects and how we weigh them against the pain)

Interesting........

Me too! Sucking it up with the side effects!!!

Im just very happy to know its there and that it works. Great piece of mind for down the road. If my pain ever gets to a 6 Im back on it for sure. There defiantly comes a time where there is a trade off.

Interesting, there is a guy on that link I provided that say he takes 300mg
he also states that its not a typo:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek: