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 |
More on ELAVIL: Reviews Summary | Drug Safety Information
| RATING | REASON | SIDE EFFECTS FOR ELAVIL | COMMENTS | SEX | AGE | DURATION/ DOSAGE | DATE ADDED |
| 4 | tension headache & insomnia | groggy in the am, hard to wake up, some dry mouth | This is the only medication that has helped me sleep, (besides a low dose valium). I would suggest this med to anyone who needs help falling asleep and staying asleep, also it has greatly reduced my headaches, not fully but a big difference. I was not as groggy on the 10mg but that didn't really help with my headache and neckache so i went to 25mg which did help but i was really groggy in the am but i also do not get enough sleep, only about 6 hours so you may not feel groggy if you get a full 8 hours. | F | 31 | 3 months | 7/12/2006 | 4 | Migraine preventative | WEIGHT GAIN!!! (20 pounds in 5 months). Drowsiness, dry mouth, decreased sex drive. These are all things my doctor denied would be side effects when I asked about them up front. | My headaches went from 20 migraines a month to 1-2. I have been suffering for 15 years with migraines and have tried numerous drugs from all classes and nothing but Elavil has worked.But because I have gained so much weight so quickly, my doctor is having me taper off now. I even tried to take Zonegran (anti-seizure) along with it, but this did nothing to decrease my appetite. | F | 35 | 5 months | 7/10/2006 | 5 | Daily Headaches, Insomnia | Drowsiness. I take 25mg in the evening 3-4 hours before bed. Decrease to a half dose if I am going to be out late or drinking a glass of wine as drowsiness will increase. Vivid dreams and deep sleep. As a previous insomniac, I am used to being awoken easily but sleep through now. I have an extra 8-10 pounds I can't lose (increased appetite but worth it!) | My actual drug name prescribed is Amitriptyline. | F | 34 | 6 years | 7/9/2006 | 4 | Nutcracker Esoph causing chestpain | extreme fatigue in the beginning. Continue to have dry mouth. Swelling of legs and arms. | Seems to be working to stop the spasms of my esophogus as I have had very little chest pain in the 2 weeks I have been on the drug. | F | 41 | 15 days | 6/14/2006 | 5 | insomnia | first few days groggy then cleared out | I was an insomniac for years, got so severe I felt like I wanted to die. First dose of elavil 10mg I didn't even know where I was, it was a nightmare. Cut the dose in half to 5mg to start and slept like a baby, always felt really calm and great. Love this drug, but had to go off of it after 10 years causing me to pass out occasionally from low blood pressure. I miss this drug, I never felt so good in my life on this. Took away the insomnia completely. | F | 48 | 10 years | 6/11/2006 | 1 | IBS | hallucinations, night-terrors, it made my asthma worse | WARNING to ANYONE trying this for the first time. I was told to take 1- 25mg pill b/f bed every night.. The 1st night, I had a night terror, the next 2 nights I had both nightmares and auditory hallucinations (I heard voices outside my bedroom of my kids fighting one night, even though they were both fast asleep. The other night I heard my husband calling me, but he was asleep next to me.). The last night I took this pill I had a very awful dream and woke up to visual hallucinations. I saw the image of a demon/monster type thing in my closet, looked up at my ceiling to see skeletal hands, then saw a dark figure move through my room. I woke up my husband who sat up with me until it all subsided and I was able to coax myself back to sleep! I am a 36 year old Mother who's NEVER done drugs and I don't drink. My mind does NOT work like this. There is no doubt it WAS the Elavil! I am not telling anyone not to try it. For many, it sounds great. I'm just WARNING people that if they do try it, | F | 36 | 4 days | 6/11/2006 | 1 | nerve pain/inability to sleep MVA | Extremely vivid nightmares, personality change, suicidal thoughts, weight gain and terrible withdrawal after stopping 10mg dosage Nightmares continued for weeks afterward. | Effectivenss in helping with sleep decreases over time necessitating increased dosages. Would never take this drug again under any circumstances!! Dangerous. | F | 55 | 7 days | 6/6/2006 | 3 | 20 migraines per month | Fatigue, difficuly urinating, severe stomach pains (taking 40mg each evening before bed) | Elavil brought my 12-year old daughter's migraines down to 5-6 per month. She had been on it for 15 months when we believed her frequent stomachaches were due to the Elavil. We abruptly stopped the Elavil (unwise!). This caused a 21-day migraine which we could not get rid of with Imitrex nor Zomig nor anything. My daughter was also vomiting daily in the shower, and sometimes several times in the middle of the night. She was dizzy and stumbling around. She was dropping things, like juice containers. She essentially spent three weeks on the couch, sleeping a lot. We had to take her out of school. We have since put her back on Elavil (30 mg before bed) but she is again having trouble urinating even when her bladder feels very full. We're going to try Topamax! | F | 40 | 17 months | 5/5/2006 | 2 | insomnia, depression | Jitteriness; sores on gums; gross taste in mouth; extreme fatigue; intermittent numbness in arms, fingers, lips, and roof of mouth | Started on 12.5 mg at night. Am now taking 25 mg. I have severe maintenance insomnia, waking up every 6 minutes during the night. Elavil did not help this problem, but did cause very weird, vivid dreams. I also feel even more tired than when I wasn’t on the medication. It has done nothing for my depression. | F | 39 | 3 weeks | 4/18/2006 | 5 | Depression, insomnia, migraines | dry mouth, decreased sex drive | I started taking 100mg a day until I experienced the full effect, and I have decreased to 50mg for maintenance. It is the sixth antidepressant that I have taken in the last 12 years, and it is the only one that has made a dramatic improvement in my life. I have not had an episode since I started taking the medication, and it successfully treats my insomnia. Also, I have only had two, count them two, migraines since I started taking the medication. I used to have at least two a month. | F | 24 | 1 years | 4/10/2006 | 4 | Fibromyalgia/Insomnia/Minor Depress | Dry mouth and dry eyes(dry eyes could be FM too), also harder to get up and going in the morning- groggy for several hours after waking | Overall, this works fairly well for me to help with my FM pain and inability to sleep. Without it- I am up ALL NIGHT and feel even more achey. Recently went to 50mg from being able to dose as needed between 10-30mg. Doctor did say was safe to take up to 100mg per dose-BUT 4 seemed to work for me, so we just went with the 50mg.Other than groggy feeling- helps alot with getting deep sleep-can remember my dreams now-which means I am sleeping deeper and better! | F | 30 | 5 months | 4/6/2006 | 1 | PANIC DISORDER/MANIC DEPRESSION | SERIOUS WEIGHT GAIN ALONG WITH A FEW OTHER UNPLEASANTRIES | NEVER AGAIN. | F | 37 | 4 months | 3/28/2006 | 3 | depression and anxiety | vivid dreams almost every night, dry mouth at first, i feel it has helped my depression more than anything so far. no weight gain. | F | 44 | 6 months | 3/22/2006 | 3 | depression w/ anxiety disorder and | I took elvil for the insomnia part of my anxiety disorder for many years. It works well for sleep aid and overall calming, but as I always do, I had bad morning hangover effect. I did gain weight and had some problems with overeating. | Taking this or other medicine causing dry mouth can give dental probles so extra care was needed-sometimes a saliva substitute. **problem-I believe this RX is used for pain and nueralgia's also--well for me this meant that Degenerative disc desease in my neck went undetected IN my opinion because of the medication's nerve pain properties. I've been off it for 2 years and sonce then have discovered how much pain I have & I now need major surgery (corpectomy) for my neck (I am only 38, this is an unusual case of severe degeneration) ? could I have had a lessor surgery, I believe so if I hadn't used this drug for so long. *Just one person's experience. | F | 38 | 5 years | 3/20/2006 | 2 | Insomnia | tachycardia (racing heart rate) | Have taken 25mg Elavil for approx. 3 yrs for sleep and for the most part was getting good results. Suddenly in the last 10 nights, my heart starts racing like a locomotive about 30 mins after bedtime. If asleep, this always wakes me up. This will last for a couple of hours and then I will fall asleep for my normal 3-5 hours per night. Feel like crap. Stopped taking elavil for one night, no racing heart, little sleep and a tension headache the next day I won't soon forget. Dropped dose to 10mg, still experiencing mild tachycardia, still can't sleep. Damned if I do, damned if I don't. | M | 47 | 3 years | 3/12/2006 | 4 | migraines | Hard to wake up in the morning, cotton mouth. | I have been on elavil for 3 years and went from having 3 or 4 headaches a month that would last for days to barely having any at all. I am now on 100mg b/c of a few headaches I've recently had, but overall this had worked wonders for me. I can't imagine going back to the pain I had before I started taking this. | F | 30 | 3 years | 3/8/2006 | 1 | Daily Headaches | Anxiety, Nervousness, Panic Attacks, Insomnia, INCREASED Sex Drive | I was taking 25 mg. at bedtime. This was my first time to take an antideppresant. I know exactly when this drug went into effect. I had a panic gripping my chest that lasted the next 2 weeks! I stopped sleeping and was having to take Ambien 10 to go sleep. I could tell that the symptoms were getting worse and called my neurologist and stopped taking Elavil. I'd rather have the headaches! The increase in sex drive was a nice side effect! I think this drug had a completely opposite affect on me than normal. (It takes a while to get out of your system.) | F | 39 | 30 days | 2/28/2006 | 1 | Sleep disorder | Pain and burning in fingers and toes, rapid heartbeat, excessive sweating, flu like symptoms, dry mouth and eyes, uncontrolable muscle twitching and tremors primarily in my legs, tinnitus. | I was prescribed 10mg of Elavil a night for minor sleep apnea in the hopes I could get some restfull sleep while using my CPAP. Well this medication did help me fall asleep and probably increased my restfull sleep but the side effects were just too much. About 2 weeks after I started taking it, I started feeling a burning pain and stiffness in my hands, fingers and toes. Then came the excessive night sweats, headaches, rapid heart rate, increased blood pressure and general malaise. I came off of Elavil 6 weeks ago and the pain, burning and tingling in my hands has gone away although I am still feeling the effects of withdrawal. I still have minor trembling and twitching in my legs and some mild dry mouth. This medication ruined my life for over 4 months and I would never recommend taking it. It may work for some of you, but the side effects were too much for me. | M | 44 | 4 months | 2/18/2006 | 5 | Fibromyalgia Syndrome | Morning grogginess, low energy, minor weight gain & difficulty losing, insomnia on higher doses. | I have tried many different drugs to treat my FMS, but Elavil (10 mg.) is the only one that made enough positive difference to make the side effects livable (I tend to get every side effect on the books). I have tried 2 times to stop taking it, but my sleep is restless and less restorative and my overall pain increases slightly without it. My doc also increased the dose to 25 mg. once to try to help with another problem, but I noticed insomnia immediately. Gradually increasing the dose helped (unfortunately the problem wasn't solved). It has been very helpful for me. | F | 33 | 10 years | 2/15/2006 | 1 | Migraine Headaches | Total zombie like feeling. I basically had no energy and basically had little desire to eat, have sex, or get out of bed! I'm a fairly big guy and the 25mg dose once a day made me feel like Gumby. | This medication was not for me and I suggest the lowest dosage that you can manage when first starting this course of therapy. | M | 35 | 21 days | 2/13/2006 |