Amitriptyline ---> 5HTP

[InstantNoodles]

A friend has been prescribed Amitriptyline for sleep and minor depression. 10mg per night and increase to 20 if theres no effect.
When I was told what she was taking I told her about 5htp and after some research she is keen to try it.
The main question is how long should she wait before switching, she has only had 1 10mg pill which was 24 hrs ago.

I tried searching but I couldn't find the answer I was looking for.

Thanks.

 

[grrr8Dane]

IMHO, your "friend" can safely experiment with 5-HTP at this point. If you're curious about how long it takes Amitriptyline to leave your system - the half life of Amitriptyline is listed as 15-50 hours.

 

[InstantNoodles]

Thanks grrr8Dane, my friend will be pleased.
I didn't want her to take them till I found out, after I had a very bad experience taking venlafaxine straight after taking Tramadol. The doc said it was Serotonin Syndrom.
Since then I have not touched an anti depressant and advise friends to be careful so they dont get the reaction I did.

 

[grrr8Dane]

No prob. This is a different scenario than Venlafaxine and Tramadol. Tramadol is a serotonin releasing agent as well as an NRI (and an opiate) and Venlafaxine is an SNRI - taking those two drugs together can be a recipe for disaster. Amitriptyline is a SNRI and 5-HTP is thought to increase the production of serotonin. There is a possibility of developing serotonin syndrome when using Amitriptyline and 5-HTP together, but given that your friend has only taken one 10mg dosage of Amitriptyline and 24 hours have passed since that dose, I think that the risk is minimal. Nevertheless, encourage your friend to proceed with caution.

 

[InstantNoodles]

Just an update, she has said the 5 htp has made her sleep better and not made her drowsy durin the day. Also I have noticed her mood change for the better, instead of being grumpy and agitated she has been calmer and happier.
She has been taken 100mg to 200 mg before bed.

 

[grrr8Dane]

Glad to hear that your friend did not experience any negative side effects from using 5-HTP after discontinuing Amitriptyline. Perhaps you could encourage your friend to share her experiences with 5-HTP in the 5-HTP thread in Healthy Living? Maybe her experience could help others who are curious about 5-HTP?

 

[ASPEN10]

Hi, this is my first time on Bluelight. I'm interested in the above topic. I have been taking Amitriptyline for 8 years for Fibromyalgia. I really want to get off it and have been advised to swap to 5HTP. I have tried lots of times to reduce my dose - I was on 75mgs at one point and managed to wean myself off 25mgs but just cannot get off the 50mgs that I've been on most of the time. I have put on lots of weight on Amitriptyline, my main reason for wanting to come off it plus my son gets married in the summer and I want to be slimmer. Amitriptyline helps me sleep and staves off depression, although I do get very down at times even on 50mgs. However, I don't think it affects my pain at all, that's constant to some extent or other.
Can anyone advise me how to swap over to 5HTP without going cold turkey. For instance can I just stop taking Amitriptyline one day and swap to 5HTP the next or will that be harmful? Or should I cut down my doses gradually by say 10mgs a week? I'm concerned about feeling really ill with a withdrawal syndrome. Will 5HTP help me sleep like Amitriptyline does or will I need something else like Melatonin? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for reading.

 

[effie]

Hi Aspen, welcome to BL and BDD. We usually encourage people to start their own threads but as your question fits in well with this one and it is a short thread I'll leave it here

5-HTP FAQ

I have read small studies which seem to indicate that 5-HTP is reasonably effective in mild-moderate depression, but I have not seen any larger studies and a Cochrane review in 2002 found that although a couple of studies did show that it was better than a placebo, there was a lack of high-quality research and the results were therefore inconclusive. Some people seem to find it does aid with sleep, but it is not sedating in the way that amitriptyline is.

I would be concerned that if you still do have periods when you feel down then now might not be the best time to consider stopping it..

In terms of switching - amitriptyline will not give you withdrawals as such, although it is possible to get a discontinuation syndrome. You need to speak to your doctor about coming off it, this is not an area we can advise you on here. It is usually recommended that you taper off it, but this should be done under medical supervision. Your doctor could also advise you on weight loss strategies, and you might be interested in the Healthy Living forum here.

Good luck!

 

[paranoid android]

Amitriptyline is a tricyclic anti-depressant with SNRI effects. As well as the anti-cholinergic effects that can hit some people pretty hard making it one hell of a sleeping pill. I would not take it with 5-htp just to avoid any risk of serotonin syndrome. It's not worth the risk so i would wait atleast 5 days for the amitriptyline to leave a persons system before taking 5-htp.

10-20mg's of amitriptyline is not in the anti-depressant dose range though. It's not until you hit 50mg's a day or more that the anti-depressant effects kick in. I took it for maybe a year and a half for neuropathic pain originally then i was tried on higher doses to help the depression i got. This was before i was really diagnosed with bipolar disorder so my doc didn't worry about the amitriptyline trigger mania. I can't really tell to this day whether it caused any manic episodes or not. It's one of the most sedating medications i have ever taken. There is no way i was able to take it during the day at all because of the anti-cholinergic effects mainly alot of sedation and dry mouth. Not to mention hunger which led to me putting on more weight then i ever have in my life . I ended up on 150mg's before the anti-depressant and neuropathic pain relief effects both crapped right out.

All in all it was not a bad drug and coming off it was very easy. I went from 150mg's down to 50 and i was off it within a week. I didnt get any WD symptoms which was a nice change from the only other anti-depressant i had ever been on at that point which was effexor (venlafaxine) which gave me withdrawals so bad and it's effects sucked so bad that it scared me off psychiatric medications for years. So your friend should have no trouble coming off their dose at all.