Health Organization for Pudendal Education

Thanks for the warning, HM.

Lernica

Hi HerMajesty,

How is it going with the Nortriptylline? I'm considering it over the Cymbalta and Tramadol (or may supplement some with the Tramadol, not sure). Just wanted to see if it was helping you and what dosage you were up to.

scaredgal wrote:Hi HerMajesty,

How is it going with the Nortriptylline? I'm considering it over the Cymbalta and Tramadol (or may supplement some with the Tramadol, not sure). Just wanted to see if it was helping you and what dosage you were up to.

I'm taking 25mg during the day and 50 at night. I have not noticed a difference between 50mg and 75 mg, but I am still going to try to get up to 100 and see if there is any difference there before dropping back down to 50. Overall since I started it I do feel significantly better with few side effects and I like the med a lot. The only time I get significant side effects (mental fuzziness / flat affect / mild tiredness) is when I 1st up my dose. Then my body gets used to the new dose and I even out.

Hi HM,

Thanks for your response and I'm glad you are liking the Nortriptylline - have you had any weight gain with it? I know that is a potential side effect. I'm really seriously considering this over the Cymbalta because of my existing sexual arousal symptoms and concerns about worsening of these symptoms.

scaredgal wrote:Hi HM,

Thanks for your response and I'm glad you are liking the Nortriptylline - have you had any weight gain with it? I know that is a potential side effect. I'm really seriously considering this over the Cymbalta because of my existing sexual arousal symptoms and concerns about worsening of these symptoms.

I spent 3 weeks weaning off tramadol which coincided with the holiday season, as I chose a time with less work / school hassle to do withdrawl. I gained weight during that period, maybe just holiday weight but I feel more like the tramadol was killing my appetite or at least coming off of it made me lazy and hungry, bad combination. I have been on Nortripyline for 5 weeks now and while I have not gained any more weight, I have not been able to take it off either. Mainly I feel like it takes energy and focus for me to control my weight and with all these med changes I have not been able to make it a priority. I am quite unhappy with the weight gain and really want to start to focus on taking it off, but I am not sure I can blame the nortriptiline for that.
I know I have not been able to successfully take weight off since I started taking neurontin a year and a half ago, not because of metabolism but because I have been too disorganized and scatter brained to remember that I'm supposed to watch what I eat: I mean literally, in the morning I will say I need to go on a diet and by noon I will be grabbing something at the drive-thru having forgot all about it...I am that dumbed-down! I didn't gain weight on the Neurontin either but had gained weight prior to starting meds, when I was at my most disabled and couldn't excercise at all. Then I went on neurontin and my weight was steady (but too high for my liking) for a year and a half until December 2010. I put on 10 pounds that month during the tramadol withdrawl and it's still with me

Ack! So it really wasn't the Nortriptylline, but a combo of factors.... You are lucky that Neurotonin didn't make you gain weight as it seems to for many people. At least with Nortriptylline, I don't think the weight gain is as much as it is for Lyrica. Gosh, I just don't want to do any meds.......

lucky the nortriptyline worked for some of you. for me, it made me hold in my urine but want desperately to pee but be unable to do so = torture.

the neurontin and vicodin and percocet and tramadol worked for me.

not cymbalta. made me lose 20 pounds (yeay) but only because I felt like a knife was stabbing my back constantly... ouch. off cymbalta and no more knife pain.

meds are weird. everybody handles them differently. but if you find some that help, keep em! they make you not go crazy.

Just starting the nortriptyline since the gabapentin didn't seem to be helping at all. Only at 10mg am/pm and not seeing any change and don't go back to dr for four more weeks. How long does it seem to take to see results?

Tracy,
I have always read that antidepressants take 3 to 4 weeks to kick in, but I noticed the difference for myself on the nortriptyline within a few days.
I don't remember if I noticed any difference at such a low dose though; I think they start you at a low dose more so that your body can get used to it than because they think a dose that low would really help (?)
The PA who prescribed it to me basically gave me permission to up the dose as long as I was tolerating it well. He told me if I was able to up the dose quickly and needed more, just call the office and he would call in more to my pharmacy. So I went from 10mg am/pm to 25mg am/pm in the 1st month ( I'm now on 25mg am/50mg pm). not sure if I was seeing any results until I was up to at least 30 mg per day (10mg am / 20mg pm).

Remember that the anti-depressant effect is not being used here - that does take several weeks to kick in, and is usually at 75 - 100mg daily, the maximum is 150mg usually.

It is effective against pain pretty fast really, I found that after just a couple of days at the right dosage I was aware of a difference. They start at a small dose and work up because some people do get relief at quite low doses.