Amitriptyline for depression with insomnia

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Has anyone taken Amitriptyline for depression? If so, how did you find it? Did it work? Did you get any side effects? I’ve tried so many antidepressants and none of them have had any positive impact so I’m not overly hopeful about this one.

I am also very anxious about side effects, specifically drowsiness and weight gain. I know Amitriptyline is known for causing drowsiness and my doctor has prescribed it to help with insomnia as well as depression, but I’m scared it will have the same effect on me that Mirtazapine had, which was to make me so drowsy I couldn’t function for over 18 hours. Also, I have some body image issues and I am scared of putting on weight.

So I suppose what I’m really asking is, to anyone who is or has taken Amitriptyline, did it make you overly sleepy and heavier?

Thanks for reading.

I was on a very low dose of this (40 mg) for pain management for a while. It definitely made me drowsy, so I imagine a higher dose would have been worse but I think you develop some tolerance to this. I knew someone else who took it at a high dose and he did gain a lot of weight. But I think it's something that happens to some people and not others. I also had a dry mouth and blurred vision. Can't say anything personally about its effectiveness, but I have heard that tricyclic antidepressants such as this are more effective than SSRIs. They are only used less frequently because of the side effects. Might be worth a tentative try and just keep an eye on the side-effects to see how it goes.

Thanks for your response. I'm only on 10mg to start with so hopefully I won't get any side effects. Then again, I was on the lowest dose for Mirtazapine too and that was awful...!

10 mg shouldn't be too bad. I should think they'll increase it quite gradually to minimise the side-effects as much as possible. I've been on Mirtazapine too, at the highest dose. Still haven't lost the weight from that.

I was on that junk for about a year. Always woke up with a hangover.

Are you talking about Mirtazipine? I had such a bad reaction to that. It made me so tired that I literally couldn’t function for over 18 hours and I felt ridiculously irritable. I only tried it once and though my doctor said my body would learn to tolerate it if I persevered for a week or two, I refused. There’s no way I could spend a couple of weeks alternating excessive sleep with snapping irritably at people! I'm never going near that stuff again...

I hope you're not talking about Amitriptyline anyway!

Yes, I am talking about amitrityline. I have issues with that, as well as Prozac, Effexor, Celexa, BusPar, and Viibryd. I'm having better results with fish oil and niacin capsules, not only with my mood, but with my cholesterol levels, since statins did not work with me also.

Besides, I usually can identify why I am having a meltdown. For example, Turner Classic Movies ran Rogers and Hammerstein's Carousel this past Sunday. I was in tears when they started the overture (also known as the Carousel Waltz), since I already know how the story is going to turn out for Billy Barker, the Male Lead (sung by Gordon MacRae) and Julie Jordah, his future wife , and the female lead (Sung by Shirley Jones). I'm in total meltdown when they get to You'll Never Walk Alone, which is sung shortly after Billy Barker is killed during an aborted robbery. Can I help it that I'm an overly sensitive and sentimental old fool?

I'm not the only one that gets choked up singing or listening to You'll Never Walk Alone. Jerry Lewis, before he and the Muscular Dystrophy Association parted company, used to get choked up when he sang that song at the end of the Labor Day Telethon. Oscar Hammerstein II had a real knack for writing lyrics that could speak to a person's heart.

Well, I tried it for the first time last night. It has affected me in a very similar way to the Mirtazapine, though thankfully not quite as extreme. It made me feel very weak and dizzy and my heart felt kind of fluttery. I was able to get to sleep very quickly but seemed to wake up for a few minutes almost every hour. I ended up spending 12 hours in bed! Also, the feeling of weakness hasn't worn off yet.

Yes, amitriptyline was prescribed to me as a secondary anti-depressant (my primary is Effexor) to take in the evening, for two reasons: 1. Almost all neurotransmitter reuptake inhibitor anti-depressants give me nightmares. The amitriptyline does help with that, although looking at the chemistry it doesn't make any sense to me why that should be the case. It is, though, so I am satisfied. 2. I have problems with delayed sleep phase and amitriptyline makes me drowsy enough when I take it that it helps me keep regular sleep schedule.

It's fine for me. No side effects at all. I take 50mg. Sleepy yes, but not overly so. No dizzyness or lethargy. I feel fine in the morning after eight hours sleep.

I've been an Amitriptyfiend for six days now and I must say, it has equal parts pros and cons for me. I have a pretty hefty tolerance to most medications, and was seriously surprised to find that one nightly 25mg dose will knock me out within minutes. As someone who has had sleeping problems ever since childhood, that is a positive aspect of this medication. As someone who tries to maintain a thin frame, I have been increasingly irritated that I find myself wanting to eat more. I'm pretty good with regard to will power, but I could definitely see how this could be a problem for someone who (a) isn't able to say no to the Cheetos, or (b) already has a weight problem.

Yes, I have been taking 10mg for a month and a half now and it still makes me tired. My sleep has been great! This is very welcome as like you, I've had sleep problems since childhood. But despite sleeping well, I'm still exhausted and I don't know if this is down to the medication or something else. So far it has had no impact on my mood. I feel my appetite has increased a bit and my weight has kind of plateaued at 6 stone 6, when I would prefer to be 6 stone 4 and used to be able to drop down to it quite easily. This is frustrating for me and puts me off taking a higher dose of amitriptyline!