As a pharmacist with 30 years nursing home and 5 years retail experience, I want to warn people about the side effects of amitriptylline. It is sedating and should be used with caution in elderly especially. It has anticholinergic effects...easy way to remember, dry eyes, dry mouth, dry poop, dry pee. Vision problems, teeth, chewing, and swallowing problems, constipation, urinary retention (problem for men especially if prostate dribbling.
I realize it helps with chronic pain and can help with sleep and depression too, but be careful.
Alternatives for chronic pain-
Vit D3 5000u daily. Monitor levels. Fish oil (increase Omega 3- EPA, DHA). Eat fresh meat (vs processed lunch meats), Fresh fruits and veggies. Avoid gluten and dairy- can help.
Probiotics can be made for very cheap if you make your own sauerkraut- with cabbage and salt. Home made Yogert or Keifer is also recommended. This also helps improve digestion and heal the gut. These issues are frequently the root cause of chronic pain diseases.
I tried Elavil several years ago. I do not have fibro but have CRPS/RSD. I started at 10 mg and I got some excellent high quality sleep for a week or so before it stopped working. This high qua,lity sleep greatly improved my pain levels. It really helped me feel much better.
When I told my doctor the Elavil was not working anymore, his comment was," Of course, your using the lowest dose. Let's raise to 25 mg." This helped but there was something else going on that I ould not put my finger on, just a funny feeling. I took my blood pressure and was quite alarmed to find my pulse was up around 100 bpm. I monitored it for 2 weeks and saw my normal pulse rate of 60-80 bpms was now 80 to 100+ bpm. At the next appointment I asked the question, "Could the Elavil be causing this?" We stopped the medication but added another medication to regulate my pulse.
I am certain it was my monitoring my blood pressure prevented us from raising the Elavil again and causing a serious case of tachycardia.
Reta
I've taken Amitriptyline(Elavil) for 17 yrs for my RSD/CRPS. I also have FMS and
it (Amitriptyline) helps me sleep at night through my pain. Without it, I have so much pain that I cannot sleep. So for this FMSer it works. My dr wanted to add Cymbalta to my pharmacological treatment but I declined, not wanting to take any more meds at this time, in addition to what I am already taking.
RSD/CRPS is a nerve disease and I feel that this med helps my nerve pain.
In the 1990s I passed a kidney stone which damaged a nerve, which then constantly fired so that I was in severe pain 24/7. After some time I was put onto Amitryptline, which worked and I was on it for 17 years. The nature of the pain changed: it wasn't constant or chronic, but rather spasmodic and stabbing. Also my attitude to my pain changed: I wasn't worrying about it any more, but rather being caught by surprise when I had it. OK there were side effects: dry skin/itching, lots of sleep (a godsend after 9 months of no sleep!) and some quite vivid dreams. But on the whole it worked. I have a theory about why it worked: it worked on the mind's reception of and conception of the pain signals, rather than the pain itself. I think that's the "antidepressant" part of the medication. After some time not sleeping and in intractable, career-ending pain, you do tend to get depressed and maybe that should be more widely recognised and labelled as such.
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Amitriptyline was the first drug tried when I was first diagnosed with fibro about 17 years ago. It made me extremely sleepy and I had a tightness in my throat while using it. The doctor kept increasing the dosage to try to get the pain under control, but all that happened was that I got sleepier. In all fairness this was when I was first diagnosed and I sat and laid down most of the time, not realizing that this was a condition to be managed rather than cured. I was taken off it and put on another anti-depressant plus flexeril . Flexeril has been a constant and seems to make a difference -maybe primarily with my TMJ disorder.