Amitriptyline

[F.U.B.A.R.]

A little OT, but I have moderate to severe sciatica every few years due to to old injuries, and medication helps, also physiotherapy.

The silver bullet, in my case anyhow, seems to be a couple of intensive acupuncture sessions.

What medication works for you Jackal?

 

[Jackal]

Pregabalin, but it fucks with my balance.

 

[F.U.B.A.R.]

Pregabalin, but it fucks with my balance.

Heh, don't it just Cheers mate.

 

[consumer]

Still at the beach mate?

I got sidetracked. At the pub i will look when i get home.

 

[consumer]

A little OT, but I have moderate to severe sciatica every few years due to to old injuries, and medication helps, also physiotherapy.

The silver bullet, in my case anyhow, seems to be a couple of intensive acupuncture sessions.

Yeah man. The best thing for my back has been acupuncture without doubt. I was a skeptic but my physio did it..they call it dry needling but fuck me its so effective.

 

[F.U.B.A.R.]

Question on acupuncture for sciatica. Is it only effective in the grip of an attack, or can it be used as a preventative? You know how debilitating sciatica can be, there's no way I could take her anywhere at the moment until the pain subsides.

 

[Jackal]

As a preventative. Take her when she feels up for it.

 

[F.U.B.A.R.]

As a preventative. Take her when she feels up for it.

Nice one. Cheers

 

[consumer]

Its also super effective at relieving pain. More effective than opiates for me.

 

[F.U.B.A.R.]

Fuck GPs and their wishy washy bullshit. Getting some pregabalin sent over.

Thank fuck for mates.

 

[consumer]

Just had a look in mims. It is indeed an snri anti depressant but it is also listed for neuropathic pain so its not an off label use, it has been shown in studies to be effective enough to be approved for this. The comnon side effects are not serious in themselves with the main ones being constipation, low postural bp and drowsiness but some of the less common ones as with most medications are nasty, the main ones being heart related which is never a good thing. So your dr wasn't making it up...it has been shown to work.

 

[F.U.B.A.R.]

Just had a look in mims. It is indeed an snri anti depressant but it is also listed for neuropathic pain so its not an off label use, it has been shown in studies to be effective enough to be approved for this. The comnon side effects are not serious in themselves with the main ones being constipation, low postural bp and drowsiness but some of the less common ones as with most medications are nasty, the main ones being heart related which is never a good thing. So your dr wasn't making it up...it has been shown to work.

Not doubting its use for neuropathic pain, just doubting its efficacy at the moment. Seems that amitriptyline is much cheaper than pregabalin hence its preferred use. Sorry to sound cynical, but that pretty much sums up the NHS these days.

Btw, isn't it classed as a tricyclic antidepressant (TCA) rather than an SNRI?

 

[consumer]

Yes its a tca but effects both serotonin and noradrenalin

 

[Buspersons Holiday]

I was prescribed Amitriptyline for nerve damage in the 90's near the end of a long hospital stay & just got out the diary I kept during and a little while after being in hospital (& am regretting typing out the Amitriptyline exerts now rather than just summarising it in a sentence, sorry)

TLDR!!

'On Monday, because I still have the burning nerve pain in my foot, they said they'd put me on a new pill and take me off the DF's as they were worried about me getting addicted to them, as I'd been having them for six weeks.
It was really busy that night so the pills didn't come round til midnight, by which time my foot was hurting really badly, so I was hoping this new pill, Amitriptyline would work, but I was just waking up all night in loads of pain, then saw the doctor the next morning about 10 & burst into tears cos my foot was still hurting & she said the Amitriptyline takes 2 weeks to start working (It's actually an anti-depressant, but apparently it's good for nerve damage as well. I wonder if it'll make me extra happy as I wasn't depressed to start off with - the side effects can be dry mouth and palpitations though, which sounds a bit dodgy)
I said I was in loads of pain so she put me back on the DFs again as it was a bit silly taking me off them when the new one won't work for 2 weeks.......................

..................The anti-depressants for my nerve pain should start working soon as it's exactly 2 weeks since I started them. Maybe I've got them to thank for the lightening of my mood today. I ended up taking 4 DFs last night cos I was so bored and devil-may-care (the 1st 2) then wide awake (the 2nd 2) It does seem that my foot doesn't hurt so much if I've taken 4 Dfs the night before. My 'coming off DFs' plan isn't going very successfully'

I lost the will to live just copying that bit out & don't seem to mention the Amitriptyline again in the few months I kept the diary after I left hospital & have no memory of whether it was effective or not, but I imagine the increased use of heroin probably confused matters. I do know I didn't experience any side-effects from it, whereas when an elderly relative was prescribed it (for nerve pain), he stopped taking it as it was making him hallucinate & 'feel weird' and a friend found it over-sedated him all the time

I hope your lady finds something effective to relieve the pain - that horrible twanging, burning sciatic pain is a shocker and glad she's got a supportive, helpful Fubar on the case

 

[F.U.B.A.R.]

I was prescribed Amitriptyline for nerve damage in the 90's near the end of a long hospital stay & just got out the diary I kept during and a little while after being in hospital (& am regretting typing out the Amitriptyline exerts now rather than just summarising it in a sentence, sorry)

TLDR!!

'On Monday, because I still have the burning nerve pain in my foot, they said they'd put me on a new pill and take me off the DF's as they were worried about me getting addicted to them, as I'd been having them for six weeks.
It was really busy that night so the pills didn't come round til midnight, by which time my foot was hurting really badly, so I was hoping this new pill, Amitriptyline would work, but I was just waking up all night in loads of pain, then saw the doctor the next morning about 10 & burst into tears cos my foot was still hurting & she said the Amitriptyline takes 2 weeks to start working (It's actually an anti-depressant, but apparently it's good for nerve damage as well. I wonder if it'll make me extra happy as I wasn't depressed to start off with - the side effects can be dry mouth and palpitations though, which sounds a bit dodgy)
I said I was in loads of pain so she put me back on the DFs again as it was a bit silly taking me off them when the new one won't work for 2 weeks.......................

..................The anti-depressants for my nerve pain should start working soon as it's exactly 2 weeks since I started them. Maybe I've got them to thank for the lightening of my mood today. I ended up taking 4 DFs last night cos I was so bored and devil-may-care (the 1st 2) then wide awake (the 2nd 2) It does seem that my foot doesn't hurt so much if I've taken 4 Dfs the night before. My 'coming off DFs' plan isn't going very successfully'

I lost the will to live just copying that bit out & don't seem to mention the Amitriptyline again in the few months I kept the diary after I left hospital & have no memory of whether it was effective or not, but I imagine the increased use of heroin probably confused matters. I do know I didn't experience any side-effects from it, whereas when an elderly relative was prescribed it (for nerve pain), he stopped taking it as it was making him hallucinate & 'feel weird' and a friend found it over-sedated him all the time

I hope your lady finds something effective to relieve the pain - that horrible twanging, burning sciatic pain is a shocker and glad she's got a supportive, helpful Fubar on the case

Thanks feller, I appreciate that. TBH, I'm not finding much to support the use of amitriptyline for sciatic nerve pain ATM. General consensus of opinion seems to be physiotherapy, acupuncture and pregabalin (and that's in general, not just from BL). Doctors just don't seem to realise that when you're in genuine, severe pain, you can't just keep tripping backwards and forwards at their whim so that they can carry out experiments...

 

[F.U.B.A.R.]

Mrs phoned the doctors this morning because nothing is working. All he was interested in was 'have you wet yourself?' He told her to take 20mg extra amitriptyline on top of the 20mg prescribed ( she's been taking 80mg per day, with no effect). He told her to take 2 extra 500mg Naproxen on top of the prescribed 1000mg daily ( she's been taking 3000mg daily, with no effect). He said he would write a prescription for co-codamol (she's been boshing 4 - 6 30/500 for days - from another source, with no effect). He said I could collect the prescription for her. Just been and it's fuckin shut for training!! NHS? Wank cunts...

Note to NHS patients - don't be ill on training days...


(Just to clarify, the NHS is generally awesome - especially for serious and life threatening issues.But IME, at the GP level, it is fuckin wank. Nurses, surgeons, consultants, can't fault them. But GPs and their fuckin witch receptionists are generally self important wankers)

 

[Pagey]

I've just skimmed through this thread so apologies if I'm just repeating what others have said, but I will absolutely, 110% back-up anyone who's said she needs to get pregabalin/Lyrica for that type of pain.
I had four strokes about 15 months ago that have left me with debilitating nerve pain in my leg. I was first given gabapentin and tramadol to deal with the pain and when that didn't even begin to soothe it, that was changed to a script for the same (large) amount of tramadol with 3x100mg Lyrica tablets a day and oh my god the pain was so much more manageable.
Fast-forward a year and I still need to take about half the doses of tramadol and Lyrica as I did right after the strokes, and seeing as I'm only 22 they're not super keen on keeping me on such strong meds, so amitriptyline and Naproxen were suggested as replacements. The Naproxen honestly did absolutely fuck all, and I can't believe her GP has told her to take 3000mg of Naproxen daily?! Considering the gastro-intestinal side effects that's genuinely a recipe for an ulcer pretty fucking quickly! (Back in the days when I'd have 32 packs of Nurofen Plus without extraction on a weekly/bi-weekly basis I got gastritis after about nine months doing that, and Naproxen is so much more damaging, so I would really recommend she stop that now, unless she can be prescribed a proton-pump-inhibitor alongside it? Something like Lansoprazole but stronger).
The amitriptyline I'm only ever prescribed to help me sleep better at night since the pain can keep me awake, and it sort of helps, but only because I'm not in acute pain anymore like I'm sure your missus is

Something that could be worth bringing up would be lidocaine patches - I get them for localised neuropathic pain in my foot. They help a lot but they're also incredibly expensive and if your missus doesn't get free NHS prescriptions (as I'm 'fortunate' enough to) they might not be in you guys' budget worth looking into for sure though. That and the pregabs.

But amitriptyline is so, so useless for acute nerve pain. Sorry she's having to go through all that...her GP sounds like an absolute useless twat.

 

[F.U.B.A.R.]

^Thank you Pagey, and nice to see you around again We're expecting some Lyrica in the post soon from a friend, so hopefully that will provide some relief. She's not moved more than a few feet for over 10 days now and it's really getting her down. Does the doctor care? Does he fuck! It says something about our healthcare system when I am more inclined to rely upon help and advice from a bunch of internet druggies rather than a medical 'professional' ( no offence meant to you guys, you're all fuckin awesome!!)