Posted by Cindylou on April 24, 2002, at 6:01:36
In reply to Re: Nortriptyline questions - mr. scott, others... » Cindylou, posted by Ritch on April 24, 2002, at 0:17:21
Thank you Mitch!
Your post was very helpful to me. I did try Amitriptyline (way back when), and that one made me feel so horrible I would never venture another try with it. I was so exhausted and parched I could barely move!Sounds like you and I are quite similar in our med reactions. I'm glad to hear the Nortrip. is working for you. I took my 10 mg last night and feel a bit shaky this morning, but nothing major.
Thank you again, and take care,
cindy> Hi Cindy,
>
> I am med sensitive and very cautious for good reasons. I started with 10mg/day. The thing with tricyclics is they are tough to get a tolerance to the side effects (it takes a while) AND they take a couple of weeks at least for much of anything good to happen. Pdocs in the past either took one of two approaches: 1) You can start off pretty much at the dose you think you will wind up taking (some guesswork), and just grin and bear the sfx until they fade (best for being hospitalized-or at least housebound), or 2) Start off very low and slow and gradually increase every week or two until you get into a therapeutic range-find the lowest dose that is helpful and stay on it.
>
> Interesting that you mentioned being fatigued on desipramine but agitated on nortripytline. Have you ever tried amitriptyline? It is nortrip.'s parent drug, and is quite sedative. I have heard of some people taking a small dose of amitripytline at bedtime (for sleep-anxiety), and then a small dose of nortriptyline in the daytime (to augment for depression). That way they get the AD benefits of the NT with less agitation. The max. of NT I have taken is 30mg/day for ADHD/depression and it worked pretty good. Interestingly, I found it helpful to *reduce* anxiety associated with taking Wellbutrin.
>
> Hope this helps,
>
> Mitch
poster:Cindylou
thread:103939
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020416/msgs/103977.html