Amitriptyline Or Amitryptiline

[sallyterpsichore]

My doctor as kind of a last resort option has put me on Amitriptyline to treat my "IBS" symptoms. It's an antidepressant, but on the lower doses, it basically numbs your guy into acting normal (that's my understanding). People taking it to treat depression take somewhere between 150-250mg a day and I'm on 25mg a day. The side effects so far are turning me into a zombie, but that did improve after the first several days. I didn't notice any improvements, but...

I had to go in to get tested for every allergy a person could have (food and environmental) to determine if I have some sort of allergy that's complicating matters. To have these tests, I had to go off of the Amitriptyline for 3 days and when I did that, things got much worse. Apparently, the drugs were helping after all! The allergy tests all turned up negative, as expected...except for dust mites, which is clearly not the issue here.

I'm now back on the Amitriptyline and am letting it build back into my system and see the effects of that.

By the way, my current symptoms are not gluten-related as we did an endoscopy and there's no visual inflammation and all of the biopsies came back normal (10 biopsies taken in different parts of the intestines). I also have some blood work pending...IGG and IGA numbers, I believe?

Any of you have any experience with this drug?

~Sally

[Lisa A]

I haven't taken it for IBS, but I was on amitriptyline for 6 months -- 25 mg -- to treat a chronic permanent headache that showed up after a bad virus. It sort of helped the headache. Mostly it made me sleep soo so well. That part was great. However the mornings were pretty bad. Mornings would have been okay if I didn't have to speak to anybody, but my 2 kids and husband expected something more from me than total zombie. I was fine by one in the afternoon with the help of much coffee. So after 6 months I went off the meds and THAT was a bad month as my brain re-adjusted. Sleep was very difficult. I was crabby beyond belief.

It was during the amitriptyline phase that I realized most of my headache problems were food-related. Specifically wheat or gluten. Wheat is one of the big causes of headache for me. I also get gut ache, nausea, asthma...

The annoying thing about doctors is that they like to treat your symptoms but not search out the actual cause of the problem. In fairness to the doctors, I suppose they just don't have the time. I mean, you get what, like 5 minutes in the doctor's office. Hardly long enough to assess anything fully or accurately.

[curiousgeorge]

I was percribed it for irritable bladder but never took it. Took a different drug for three months and bladder is fine now. Of course I read recently that irritable bladder is a celiac symptom. Egads what next.

[lmvrbaby]

I was on amitriptelyne for migraine control. My problem with it is that I gained weight. I was only on 10mg but along with that I had verapmil which is usually for high blood pressure but the combo of both acts as migraine control. which has worked well, except the weight gain. I have gone off of it for about 2 weeks and have lost 5 pounds of the 30 I have gained in the last 6 months. Back to the drawing board as far as migraine control. I was told being on a gluten free diet that I would lose weight. Did not work for me on that aspect. I am trying hard to eat healthy and tend to overeat, I feel hungry all the time. No idea where to go from here.......