Suffering with a lot of nerve pain following my recent mx and recon with implant. Been prescribed with Amitriptyline by my GP with starting dosage of 10 mg / day. Only started Monday so may need to give it longer but not noticed any improvement yet. GP and Surgeon have said that the dosage can be increased without any SEs if needed but was wondering if anyone has any experience they can share on time to become effective and dosage. I know we are all different but would appreciate any comments or advice. The sensations can drive me to tears at time so want to try and get on top of this as I think it will aid my recovery as i will be able to move around a lot more.
Thank you x
Hello lelly61
I was on amitriptyline for several years after my WLE, the highest dosage I took was 50mg. It was prescribed to me as I did have nerve damage but also it helped during chemo when I was a bit low although it wasn’t for depression as you would need much higher dosage to treat depression. It helped me get a good nights sleep.
I came off it because I am on letrozole and I thought that along with letrozole I was getting a really badly dry mouth. It turns out that I have burning mouth syndrome and amitriptyline and nortriptyline (similiar drug to amitriptyline) are the drugs used to treat it. I am on nortriptyline now.
It does take a while to get into the system but it certanly helped me, it is not adictive and I was able to wean myself off it.
I hope that helps.
Hazel
Hello Lelly61,
Amitriptylline is used especially at night to help with nerve pain. Usually you start at 10mg at night, but the dose is then often increased on a weekly basis to upto 50mg, ie 10mg week 1, 20mg week 2 etc.
Best to take 1 hour before bed, but if you are too tired the next day try moving it back by 1/2 hour each night.
If amitriptylline has too many SE, eg fatigue, dry mouth etc they can change you to something else eg Gabapentin.
Hope that helps, but check with your Gp if uncertain.
Fiona
Hi Lelly61
I found that Amitriptyline was excellent at dealing with the nerve pain I had around the SNB site. I started on 10mg, found that wasn’t enough, increased it to 20mg and that did the trick. It worked very well for me without any complicated side effects, and once the initial nerve pain died down I continued with a 10mg dose at night to help me sleep. I have stopped taking it for a few days from time to time, just to check that I’ve not become addicted to it and that it doesn’t cause problems, but I don’t get to sleep as well without it.
The only drawback I found with higher doses was that it not only numbs the sore bits, it also numbs other bits you may not want numb (if you get what I mean). But if you’re feeling so generally rotten that won’t matter.
Many thanks for your feedback ladies, very much appreciated and really pleased to hear that it can really help. Although I haven’t noticed any difference with the pain so far, I have definitely been sleeping better so that is a positive SE. Will discuss with GP but feel more comfortable about looking to increase the dosage a bit more to help.
Hope you are all doing well
L x
I have been on amitriptyline for a couple of years as I was sleeping badly. I had a mastectomy a month ago and still have nerve pain so the gp upped the dose today. My BCN said massage my arm to remind the nerves that they are there! Georgie xx