Hello all, I am 27 years old 4 months into PCS and taking antidepressant notriptyline 25mg once a day at night. From the first day of my concussion and throughout the investigations and doctors' visits, my bp has been in the range of 130-150/80-90.

One of the docs was puzzled when he saw my records of bp after my concussion but overlooked it and thought maybe it's my anxiety. Also since 15 days of taking the antidepressant, I have started feeling extremely restless and mild shaking and shivering in my body. Out of curiosity I installed an app to monitor my resting heart rate and it was above 100. Should I be concerned? Or is it a side effect of notriptyline? I have put on some weight while on recovery and my physical activity is almost zero and I am literally just eating and resting to get maximum recovery. Even while typing this, I feel restless and my heart is beating fast for no reason. What should I do?

The high bp incident was before the antidepressant so I wonder if the antidepressant is the culprit?

I suggest asking your doctor about a prescription for something like propranolol. It will lower your BP and possibly help with the shaking.

Did you mean you are eating to help with your recovery ?

Hi Mark,

I am having fruits( at least 5 different fruits each day for antioxidants), vegetable soup, whole grains, turmeric milk for inflammation if any in my body, 2 boiled whole eggs..basically I am mostly getting sugary and diary diet these days so I was wondering if too much sugar from fruits and no activity is contributing to my restless feeling ? Just a guess...

Also I have noticed that my heart is beating even faster when I get up in the middle of night or after a dream.

I haven't got this issue investigated or even mentioned to any of the docs yet. The neuro caught the high BP in my records and looked concerned for a moment..I will speak to my doc about it

I think you are eating cause youre bored. I put o a hundred pounds this way. be careful

I'd reduce the sugary portion of your diet. Are you taking any supplements like in the Vitamins sticky at the top ? You need Omega 3 DHA and meat protein with some of the fat included.

My neurologist started me on amatryptaline for headaches and trouble sleeping. Went from 12.5mg which was fine to muscle twitches which interfered with sleep at 25mg, they prescribed going to 50mg.

I decided with my GP to stop ama and start certaline for depression. In the process of doing that, I went through a breakup and had the first and hope to God only anxiety attack of my life. Doc started me back on amatryptaline and within an hour of restarting, anxiety was much better. Kinda ****** b/c they told me ama wasn't addictive.

So i'm gonna wait a few more weeks then hope to wean myself off very slowly. Scary stuff. Therapist did teach me breathing exercise which seems to help. I practice is several times a day, use it when feeling a little anxious. Breath in as you count to 4, hold for 4 seconds, breath out as you count to 4. repeat 4 times.

I have been feeling the same thing. I am almost 8 months with PCS and i am 22 with much higher bp than before. My neurologist gave me nortriptyline to take but it was giving me bad dizziness and i could not function. Plus it was given to help me sleep but did the opposite! Like Mark said take it easy on the natural sugars. Thats quite a bit but if youre not feeling other symptoms then i would not freak out but definitely get to a Dr. and find out whats up.

Joe takes Nortrip 35 mg a day which helps his headaches a bit. He is going to a new headache specialist now here in Virginia and told the doctor about his high pulse and high anxiety, especially in the morning. The Doctor said Nortrip definitely increases your heart rate. He advised moving the dosing of Nortrip farther away from bedtime, and adding Propranolol to slow down the heart rate. After 3 weeks on propranolol, his heart rate is a bit slower although still too high. He still has anxiety, especially in the morning. Headaches are less severe in the morning, and get worse as the day goes on. This is his Mom Julia typing since he is still not using the computer.....

I was exactly the same, fast resting pulse and waking up in the night with heart racing and in my case sweats, thankfully this didn't happen every night. I reckon light exercise in the form of walking and the deep breathing exercise @underwater mentions helped me since 4 3/4 months in it's gone. I also cut down caffeine and reduced my sugar intake too. The high pulse seemed to be part of the anxiety symptom (the signature of PCS!). It's like I had to retrain my body to increase and decrease my pulse according to physical demand because it had got stuck lol.