ELAVIL Reviews (AMITRIPTYLINE HYDROCHLORIDE)Average Rating: 3.1 (585 Ratings)Filter ResultsCompare ELAVIL with similar:
Type: Brand name discontinued; available as generic
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Results are sorted by Date added. Key to Ratings: 1=LOW (I would not recommend taking this medicine.) Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 |
| RATING | REASON | SIDE EFFECTS FOR ELAVIL | COMMENTS | SEX | AGE | DURATION/ DOSAGE | DATE ADDED |
| 1 | Anxiety/Chronic Headaches | Rapid Heart rate, depression, disoriented, blurred vision, not feeling like myself | Greatest nights sleep I can fondly remember, however, the side effects are absolutely horrid. Will never take this shit again. | M | 32 | | 12/9/2006 | 2 | Headaches | gained 40lbs, dizziness, muscle weakness, no energy, no sex drive. Its a horrible drug. I'm just finding out that all of my symptoms are coming from this drug. It's very frustrating that I was not told of these side affects and it took so long to find my problem. | has anyone else experienced muscle weakness? | F | 29 | 4 years | 12/4/2006 | 3 | Teeth grinding/clenching | Mild constipation; sleep disorders (see comments) | My dentist prescribed 10mg to try to alleviate my nighttime teeth grinding and clenching. I took the pills for about two weeks and thought they really had little effect on me--other than giving me a really great night's sleep! This was just a trial period, and I stopped taking them without any noticable withdrawal symptoms. Now that the dentist has recommended a long-term dose, I have been reading this website to try to understand any longer-term side effects. And it has been really interesting to read--especially the lady who described her nightime hallucinations--because the same thing happened to me, but I did not recognize them as side effects until reading this! On several occasions I clearly heard childrens' voices, crying and footsteps running to my bed, but when I got up to check my children were sound asleep. I also "saw" a black hand coming down at me from the ceiling and other dark presences. This is not normal for me and so it is a relief to realize it may well ha | M | 38 | 14 days | 12/3/2006 | 2 | Vulvodynia | Increase in appetite, fatigue, moodiness/depression, not feeling like myself | I didn't even get to really see if Elavil would help my Vulvodynia symptoms, I couldn't deal with the side effects. My doctor wanted to keep me on it for a while longer to see if the side effects would go away but I refused. It was strange that it made me feel depressed as it is an anti-depressant. I didn't like it at all. I can't remember how much I was on, it was a fairly low dose though. | F | 21 | 2 weeks | 12/2/2006 | 4 | Waking up all night very anxious | blurred vision, complete loss of sex drive, inability to orgasm, mild weight gain. | I'm bummed about the side effects, but I was sleeping only a few hours/night and now I sleep 7 hours straight through; it's worth it. | F | 47 | 4 years | 11/26/2006 | 3 | endometriosis on my bladder | sleepiness,weight gain, dry mouth | it started to help me at first. but my doctor has to keep upping my dosage because it seems to work for a little bit then stops working. i always have to go pee. every 30 min. to an hour. | F | 22 | 2 months | 11/16/2006 | 3 | MIGRAINES | WEIGHT GAIN!! 20-30 lbs Metabolism has slowed to zero. Increased appetite for food in general especially sweets. Waking up during the night to eat and drink. High fiber diet alone does not relieve the constant constipation or bloating. Senekot*S provides relief when used in combination with high fiber (in a few days). Night terrors-very, very vivid. Hallucinations during the evenings when I wake up from sleeping briefly. Helps you sleep provided you do not wake up to night terrors or hallucinations. Hard to wake up in am, sleepy behind the wheel. Medicine needs to be taken at the same time every evening or you start get to irritated/aggravated because it is time for the next dosage. Tingling in hands daily, internal thermostat higher than normal-always feel it could be a bit colder. Dehydration effects your entire body. | I would not recommend Elavil for anyone after my experiences. Although it helped with the headaches the unhealthy weight gain was not good for my health in general-mental or physical. Also I felt the doctor "glossed over" the side effects and the side effects I reported. THANK GOODNESS FOR THIS WEBSITE!! I now know I am not part of a small percentage who experiences these types of side effects. I plan to stop this medication after my next office visit. | F | 34 | 7 months | 11/14/2006 | 4 | FIBROMYALGIA | WEIGHT GAIN & WATER RETENTION | F | 52 | 5 years | 11/7/2006 | 2 | headaches | extreme fatigue anger, dizziness | i went to bed at 9 pm and would barely crawl out of bed at 3pm the next afternoon. I was extremely dizzy (i also have low blood pressure) and angry about everything. i couldn't collect my thoughts and i would almost forget words. I took only 5mg | F | 19 | 7 days | 10/29/2006 | 1 | migraines | Increase in appetite for sweets which lead to an increase in weight. Groggy in the morning. Felt like my internal thermostat was turned up. The worst was the overwhelming urge to eat non-food stuff like chapstick, crayons, cereal boxes and body lotion. | Try Imitrex for immediate migraine relief. Also, get an eye exam. It turned out I had a slight stigmatism and needed eye glasses. My migraines decreased greatly. | F | 20 | 6 weeks | 10/27/2006 | 4 | Tension headache, upper back pain | Drowsiness, slightly increased appetite | 25mg greatly helped relieve chronic tension headache and back pain for about 6 months but lost effectiveness after that; unsure if it's because of tolerance to drug or cause of pain becoming worse. Increase to 50mg resolved symptoms for another 6 months but constant pain is returning; will soon increase to 75mg. Few side effects; increased appetite and slight weight gain. Considerable drowsiness an hour or so after taking the pills, wonderful for falling asleep but difficult to wake up in the morning. Taking smaller dosages over a period of a few hours instead of a full dose all at once before bedtime helps somewhat. Very useful drug for chronic tension headache, but you will become dependent upon it. Low doses will have little or no antidepressant effects. | M | 21 | 1 years | 10/26/2006 | 1 | Disc Degenitive Desease/Arthritis | Nausea, tiredness, constipation, sharp stabbing pains around chest(breast area), migranes, anxiety with aggrivation, and sweats. | The first couple of days of being on it I became constipated, then I started getting really tired alot with nausea and really bad sweats during the day and evening hours constantly, then I started experiencing sharp stabbing pains in my legs then went into my chest where my breast were, then came on the migranes in the early evening, Afer a week on it I became with these side affects still presisting, highly aggrivated with high anxiety which cause me to lash out verbally, I will never take this medication ever again....I can not believe the FDA allows this medication to be on the market!!! | F | 42 | 9 days | 10/18/2006 | 1 | Migraines, depression | Horrendous weight gain. I gained 100lbs in a year and probably would have gained more if I hadn't made my doctor take me off it. I was ravenously hungry all the time and could eat an entire cake by myself. It also increased my anxiety to unheard of levels. I couldn't leave the house, I was near suicide all the time. | Not the right drug for me at all. | F | 33 | 1 years | 10/10/2006 | 1 | neuropathic pain | unrelenting dry mouth, zero appetite, unable to wake up and so sleeping 12+ hours. | i had no idea it would make me sleep like the dead. really inappropriate prescription for a stay-at-home mother of a 2-year-old. will likely ease off of this medication in the next two weeks. don't take this one if you're caring for babies. | F | 38 | 2 weeks | 10/4/2006 | 1 | migraines/insomnia | only took for 2 nights,had an extremely fast heartbeat,little sleep,moments where i thought i might pass out | apparently works wonders for some people who sleep like a baby on this but as ive learnt,some people actually have the opposite reaction to this drug which is what happened to me, will not try again as obviously doesnt suit me | F | 37 | 2 days | 10/4/2006 | 5 | Sleep/Fibromyalgia | The first night I felt dizzy in my sleep, that was gone afterwards. It caused me to have a delay when I would use the restroom (which was nice in a way because it kept me from using the restroom 3 times a night). All side effects wore off after I adjusted to the drug which took a week (I started off on 10mg, I've been told it's best to work your way up to avoid unpleasant side effects). | This changed the way that I sleep. Never in my life had I slept so deeply which all but got rid of my fibro pain. I was prescribed only 10mg at the beginning. After 2 1/2 years however it has stopped working. My doctor has up'd my dosage to 20mg. Eventually though I'd like to switch off of it for a while so I can come back to it and have it be effective again. This drug greatly improved my quality of life for well over 2 years due to the better sleep (which the sleep clearly was one of the root causes of my fibro, brain fog, etc.). | M | 28 | 2.5 years | 9/12/2006 | 1 | nuropathy | From day one, each day I was just dragging myself through the day. Felt like I had aches and pains all over. I was in a very bad mood every day. My husband said I had turned into a different person. I had constipation so bad and no laxatives helped me. I had dry mouth. My appetite increased, all I wanted to do was eat. I had sharp pains in my eye. Lights at night were purple and still are, 3 days after stopping drug. Bad medicine for me. I stopped 3 days ago and already I feel like a new person, like my old self! I'll live with the nuropathy rather than these awful side effects. | F | 54 | 14 days | 9/1/2006 | 3 | depression, pmdd | dry mouth, insatiable thirst, loss of appetite, slight weight loss | compared to the other drugs, i like it, only on 20 mg a day and may need to increase... i like that it can be in very small doses and increased very slowly. | F | 33 | 30 days | 8/16/2006 | 4 | MS and insomnia | Morning grogginess and bad attitude. | Originally given to ne for fibromyalgia/insomnia but it turns out I have MS. Certainly works to help keep me asleep. The original dosage was 25mg twice a day. Well, I tried 25mg the first night and said, "never again". The grogginess was too much. Next bout of insomnia I tried half a pill. Still too much so I tried 1/4 pill. Now we were getting somewhere. That was about 20 years ago. Now I'm up to 50mg at night. I still wake up with a bad attitude so I just don't speak to anyone for about 30 minutes then I'm OK. I want to try getting off this stuff some day but it does help with sleep and body pains. | M | 52 | 20 years | 8/4/2006 | 4 | basilar artery migraines | small rash when I first started taking it, drowsiness, complete loss of sex drive | I was prescribed Elavil for the numbness and tingling in my body (mostly my face) associated with Basilar Artery Migraines. It has worked wonderfully and my face now only goes numb if I forget to take my pill. Although I wasn't prescribed Elavil for depression, I have noticed an improvement in my mood and general outlook on things. | F | 22 | 365 days | 7/18/2006 |