Coming off Elavil?

[Sally34]

Hi, Its been a while since I have been here.

I had a lot of pain and IC symptoms back in 2002, and after trying a few mild pain meds and other medications I tried Amitriptyline and within a couple of months felt a lot better. At the time my doctor didn't know much about IC and couldnt help so I told her that I wanted Ami.
I literally prescribed myself.
For the last three years I've taken Ami before bed reducing my dose down to 25 mg every night. I would take up to 50mg if I couldnt sleep as it helped with insomnia as well.
I have had maybe one flare in the last year now and don't have any symptoms besides the occasional frequency (which doesnt bother me)
I had a very stressful relationship at the time of IC onset, back in 2000 and most of my flares are stress related.
I am now in a new relationship (married) and don't have any symptoms, but I am wondering if its the Ami thats made me better or just less stress?
I was never diagnosed with IC and one doctor thought it could be Urethral syndrome?
I now want to come off of Ami as I have absolutely no interest in sex and no libido at all. I am worried to completely come off of it though, in case my IC comes back, I also sleep better with Ami and rely on it to help me sleep. The side effects are getting me down though. Also I seem to feel depressed when trying to come off of it (I never had depression before taking it)
At the moment Im only taking 25mg every two nights. But the ami must be so much in my system still as I have no libido.
Is this common?
Also is there a drrug I could take just for the occasional flare instead of Ami every night? I live in the UK
Sorry to go on...

Sally.

[mayray518]

I dont know, I knew the newer SSR antidepressants, like prozac, lower sex drive but I dont know about elavil. I started out on 50 mg of elavil and it worked miracles for me. I weaned myself down to 25 and am now on 5. Try weaning yourself down and see what happens.

[mirina]

I used to have the same problems when I started taking amitriptylin. I've tried to come off amitriptyline several times, but every time I did I had a new flare. Now I take 25 mg every night and I'm doing great: no sleepiness, no weight gain and no problems with libido … Though I have an unusual side effect (hair loss which could be caused by something else?? ) It took me years to get used to amitriptylin, but luckily after some time it got better. As far as I know among all antidepressants and sedatives, only tricylic antidepressants work for IC, so maybe you could ask your doctor to prescribe you some other tricylic antidepressant. Maybe your side effects will be different and you'll have no libido problems. You can also try antiallergic drug hydroxizine (Atarax, Vistaril) which has sedative effect. But it's a prescribed drug. Ask your doctor. The problem is many doctors don't know much about IC. I live in Moscow, Russia and we have the same problem here. But we do have these drugs and you must also have them in the UK. You can also order by email special food additives (Cystoprotec, Algonot, CystaQ), read about them on this site. Some ICers are doing fine on them and they usually don't have unpleasant side effect.
But I hope that you'll come off amitriptylin without any problems and NEVER have IC (or what it was) again.
Good luck!

[jaime15]

I didn't like the weight gain while on elavil. So I had my doctor take me off it. Now I take it as needed.
One thing about stopping it was I had horrible side-effects for 6 weeks. I couldn't sleep no more than 3 hours at a time. But it went away.
I'm glad it has helped you.....as for the no sex drive...I'm sure every medicine affects us in different ways.
Make sure your doctor is aware of you wanting to quit or reduce dosage.

[ICNDonna]

You really need to be working with your physician to wean away from this one. And if your IC symptoms return, there are other antidepressants you can try that won't have the same effect.

Donna

[poetgirl]

As Donna said, you definitely cannot stop taking Elavil without having direction from your physician on how to wean yourself off. And I agree with Mirina that it might be worth it to try other medications that are helpful for reducing IC symptoms and will also help you sleep at night.

I've been on Elavil for two years at 25 mg per night. I did not experience weight gain or loss of libido, but it does tend to make me more lethargic at times. It's kind of annoying but it has helped banish the pain I had from IC and vulvar vestibulitis, and helped reduce frequency too. Sometimes it helps me sleep better, sometimes not.

I think the point that you made about stress is definitely true to a degree. My symptoms were at the worst while I was in the midst of a difficult relationship and did not begin to fully subside until I finalized my divorce. That's not to say I don't have plenty of stress in my life now, but there must be something about certain types of ongoing emotional stress that affects people more.

[CareBear]

Hi Sally and everyone,

I just came on to see if anyone had advice on getting off Elavil too. I've been on it since 2001 and would rather take something else--the Elavil is making me stupid, literally! My doc has no clue, he just writes the scripts as I tell him. I don't know what to do either??

Hoping for answers for the both of us.

Cari :grouphug: