Clusterheadaches.com Message Board


    
      
        Clusterheadaches.com Message Board
        (http://www.clusterheadaches.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi)
      

        New Message Board Archives >> Medications, Treatments, Therapies 2003 >> Amitriptyline Preventative
        
(Message started by: tomwood on Apr 25^th, 2003, 5:20pm)

Title: Amitriptyline Preventative
Post by tomwood on Apr 25^th, 2003, 5:20pm

Everyone,
I have been a long standing clusterhead(20years). I've done a lot of research and came up with Amitriptyline(Elavil) last year. IT IS A SERATONIN RE-UPTAKE INHIBITOR!! Make sense?
I let the headaches go this year until the cycle was about to start. I was getting very slight headaches everyday, but no brutal ones. I went to see my neuro and we talked about Verapamil, Predisone, Lithium, etc. I suggested that we give the Amitriptyline another try. We decided to do 50mg for a few days to build it up in my system, and then go down to 10mg. At 50mg I was spinning. I was disoriented and groggy, but the headaches went away IMMEDIATELY! When I went down to 10mg, all the side effects were gone, but the headaches came back very slightly. I left it this way and kept taking 10mg for a couple of months. The headaches are still with me but I barely feel them. We decided to leave the dose like this so that I could tell when the headaches disappear, and keep taking the Amitriptyline for another month after all symptoms are gone.
I think that the dosage will vary from person to person. That's what my neuro says. I would start at 50mg and go down after a few days if the side effects are too rough, or go up if you don't have any side effects. After a few days you can probably drop it down to 10/20/30/50mg per day.
Try it! I have never had anything work for me!!!! This stuff is amazing!! :) :)

Title: Re: Amitriptyline Preventative
Post by Opus on Apr 27^th, 2003, 12:29pm

Glade it worked for you, It had no effect on me and I went really high. My side effects went away in a few days.
Opus :P

Title: Re: Amitriptyline Preventative
Post by achinghead on Apr 28^th, 2003, 5:11am

I tried it for a couple yrs.. problem for me was the tiredness and it also gave me blurred vision and an awful taste with drymouth.. but it did seem to help my HA's... Now Im on the Zoloft.. seeing if it works along with the Verap... Im on low dose of verap though.. Have been virtually PF for 7 days now.. Did have a shadow this morning.. hope that was just a fluke....

Title: Re: Amitriptyline Preventative
Post by NewHeadPLZ on Apr 28^th, 2003, 11:09am

I've tried Elavil in the past and had some success, but it seems like anything else, sooner or later the HA's break through. As a matter of fact, started 50mg this past Sunday in hopes that it might help me in my current cycle. I've been getting a KIP 10 just about everyday for the past week. O2 no help. Can't afford the shots. Verap. @ 1140mg. Something's gotta give!

Title: Re: Amitriptyline Preventative
Post by notseinfeld on Apr 29^th, 2003, 10:32pm

Good God new head--1140? You musn't have a pulse left.

I tried Elavil for 4 days and the GI track shut down. My mouth felt like I had been chewing on steel wool and I could spit and glue things together. At one point I was so miserable I said (in jest of course) I'd rather have an attack than bear any more of this.

Been prescribed Nortriptyline but have been afraid to try the damned stuff. Currently suffering tons of constriction/shadows each day but no outright attacks. A mini-blessing really.

Battling w/340 Verap as a chronic.

Title: Re: Amitriptyline Preventative
Post by Kenzie60 on May 3^rd, 2003, 12:38pm

I have been on Amitriptyline for 2 weeks now ( 40 mg) at bedtime, along with 480 mg of Verapamil and Topamax (75mg) it is keeping my ha down to Kip 3's, but the dry mouth is driving me crazy. I have been drinking so much water. Which is good, (running to the bathroom every 15 minutes), read the water tip on the left. Hopefully this will work, before this my ha's were kip 10's.

Roseanne ::)

Title: Re: Amitriptyline Preventative
Post by pain_in_the_neck on May 3^rd, 2003, 2:09pm

Hi everyone, i am new here, ive been suffering for as long as i can remember, my doctor thought i was making up my pains..as i am only 23 now and i can remember having them at 16...He put me on perscription after perscription..it used to just go away with a few Tylonols and then they stopped working, its like i am immune to my meds after a few ha's. I am happy (i know thats not the right word) to see others with the same pains as me. Nobody i know has ever had one. and can't understand what i'm going through. i have been perscribed Gen-Verapamil 240mg. i was told to take 1/2 a pill every day for a week and then to go on to a whole one if my ha's haven't gone away. i have taken half pills for 3 days and had ha's everyday since...so today i am taking a whole one. hope this goes away soon.
Wish someone could really fix em for good.
feels like a swift blow to the head with a sledgehammer would be more agreeable to my system.
thanks for this site.
Gina.