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Share your experience: submit a drug review
Below are Elavil (Amitriptyline) reviews, ratings, comments submitted by patients and caregivers. Based on a total of 14 ratings/reviews, Elavil has an overall score of 7.71. The effectiveness score is 8.57 and the side effect score is 7.43. The scores are on ten point scale: 10 - best, 1 - worst. This information is not vetted and should not be cosidered as clinical evidence. | | Elavil review by 56 year old female patient | | | Rating |
| Overall rating: | |  |
| Effectiveness: | | Considerably Effective |
| Side effects: | | No Side Effects | | |
Treatment Info |
| Condition / reason: | | Depression |
| Dosage & duration: | | 25 mg. taken daily for the period of 12 years |
| Other conditions: | | Sleep problems |
| Other drugs taken: | | Erythrom. | | |
Reported Results |
| Benefits: | | Although this drug was originally prescribed for depression, it helped with sleeplessness. Therefore, I have continued to take it for that alone. While I still on occasion have problems falling asleep, I find I can combine it with Melatonin or Valerian. In 12 years, I haven't had to increase the elavil dosage. |
| Side effects: | | None. |
| Comments: | | One a day, taken about an hour before bedtime. |
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| | Elavil review by 50 year old female patient | | | Rating |
| Overall rating: | |  |
| Effectiveness: | | Moderately Effective |
| Side effects: | | Severe Side Effects | | |
Treatment Info |
| Condition / reason: | | FIBROMYALGIA |
| Dosage & duration: | | 15 MG taken one daily at bedtime for the period of ONE MONTH |
| Other conditions: | | NONE |
| Other drugs taken: | | PRAVACHOL | | |
Reported Results |
| Benefits: | | BETTER SLEEP- WELL RESTED |
| Side effects: | | HORRIBLE VERTIGO AND ALL OVER TREMORS THE NEXT MORNING |
| Comments: | | I WAS ADVISED TO DISCONTINUE USE AFTER CONSULTATION WITH MY INTERNIST BY PHONE. I TOLD HER THAT I WAS EXPERIENCING A SIDE EFFECT OF THE ELAVIL THAT SHE PRESCRIBED FOR A MORE RESTFUL SLEEP PATTERN TO HELP WITH MY FIBROMYALGIA. I HAD BEEN TAKING 10 MGS. FOR ALMOST 3 WEEKS AND GRADUALLY INCREASED TO 15 MGS. AT THE 15 MG. DOSAGE I BEGAN EXPERIENCING ALL OVER BODY SHAKINESS--TREMORS -EVEN AFFECTING MY SPEECH. SHE ADVISED TO DISCONTINUE IMMEDIATELY WITHOUT "RAMPING" DOWN MY DOSAGE. |
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| | Elavil review by 44 year old female patient | | | Rating |
| Overall rating: | | |
| Effectiveness: | | Considerably Effective |
| Side effects: | | Moderate Side Effects | | |
Treatment Info |
| Condition / reason: | | migraines |
| Dosage & duration: | | 25-50 mgs taken once a day for the period of 18 months |
| Other conditions: | | none |
| Other drugs taken: | | midrin | | |
Reported Results |
| Benefits: | | The elavil was taken as a preventative measure for migraines. I did have fewer migraines while I was taking this medication. The ones that I did get seemed to be less severe. |
| Side effects: | | I took it at night and it made it very difficult to wake up in the morning. Also, after I took it, I would go right to sleep but if something woke me up within the first few hours of taking it, I had a VERy hard time going back to sleep. |
| Comments: | | I took 25 to 50 mgs at bedtime for about 18 months. I took myself off of it because I was tired of the "hangover" effect. Since that time, the headaches are much less of a problem. |
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| | Elavil review by 37 year old female patient | | | Rating |
| Overall rating: | | |
| Effectiveness: | | Highly Effective |
| Side effects: | | Mild Side Effects | | |
Treatment Info |
| Condition / reason: | | Tension headaches |
| Dosage & duration: | | 25 mg taken once per day for the period of Three months |
| Other conditions: | | Migraine Headaches |
| Other drugs taken: | | None | | |
Reported Results |
| Benefits: | | Actually the Amitriptyline greatly helped with getting to sleep each night as an added benefit. It is an antidepressant but used in this case to break a cycle of tension headaches. The pattern of tension headaches was broken and the headaches have not since returned. It also acted as a migraine headache preventative. |
| Side effects: | | It does cause drowsiness and so had to be taken at night. It also causes a dry mouth. It felt to me as if it were also slowing my metabolism down but this was not measurable in the time frame. |
| Comments: | | One tablet per night for three months. |
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| | Elavil review by 61 year old female patient | | | Rating |
| Overall rating: | | |
| Effectiveness: | | Marginally Effective |
| Side effects: | | Severe Side Effects | | |
Treatment Info |
| Condition / reason: | | insomnia |
| Dosage & duration: | | 150 mg taken once for the period of once |
| Other conditions: | | sarcoidosis |
| Other drugs taken: | | lisinopril, theophylline, cartia, premarin | | |
Reported Results |
| Benefits: | | Highly effective for sleeping. |
| Side effects: | | Slept for 3 days. Very disoriented and groggy! |
| Comments: | | not exactly what I had in mind. I wake up during the night at 2 or 3 or 4 am
and am unable to go back to sleep, I wanted the ability to sleep through the night. But I did not want to sleep for 3 days!
I think maybe the initial dose was too high. I only took one tablet and never took another one. |
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| | Elavil review by 24 year old male patient | | | Rating |
| Overall rating: | | |
| Effectiveness: | | Moderately Effective |
| Side effects: | | Moderate Side Effects | | |
Treatment Info |
| Condition / reason: | | Temporomandibular joint disorder (TMJ) |
| Dosage & duration: | | 50mg taken daily at bedtime for the period of 4 years |
| Other conditions: | | None |
| Other drugs taken: | | Ibuprofen 600 mg every 6-8 hours. Paracetamol 1000 mg every 4-6 hours. | | |
Reported Results |
| Benefits: | | Helped relax muscles in face, thereby relieving TMJ and reducing pain. |
| Side effects: | | Dry mouth, nervousness, dizziness. Also negative as it was given as a long term pain management solution, it reduced my pain but still needed to be used along-side pain-killers. If stopping and has been taken for a long time slowly ween off (unlike myself) as caused me to have sweats, aches and pains and lethargy (flu-like symptoms) for a number of days. |
| Comments: | | 50 mg at bedtime. |
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| | Elavil review by 49 year old female patient | | | Rating |
| Overall rating: | | |
| Effectiveness: | | Highly Effective |
| Side effects: | | Mild Side Effects | | |
Treatment Info |
| Condition / reason: | | insomnia |
| Dosage & duration: | | 5-20 mg taken every night for the period of As needed off and on for several years |
| Other conditions: | | none |
| Other drugs taken: | | ibuprofen, | | |
Reported Results |
| Benefits: | | Did not wake up in the middle of the night, HIGHLY IMPROVED quality of sleep, and improved body relaxation. was able to stop using alcohol to stay asleep.
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| Side effects: | | sometimes dry mouth, and if too much was taken, and sometimes residual drug in body which made one feel logy. |
| Comments: | | As needed for sleeplessness (waking around 3am and not being able to return to sleep. |
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| | Elavil review by 56 year old female patient | | | Rating |
| Overall rating: | | |
| Effectiveness: | | Highly Effective |
| Side effects: | | Mild Side Effects | | |
Treatment Info |
| Condition / reason: | | chronic headaches |
| Dosage & duration: | | 150 mg taken once daily at bedtime for the period of since 2000, still taking |
| Other conditions: | | High Blood Pressure |
| Other drugs taken: | | Accupril | | |
Reported Results |
| Benefits: | | Since I was very young, a child, I suffered debilatating headaches. Often they became true migraines. They would last for days and days, sometimes weeks
without stop. I missed school, parties, holidays. I was scared to make plans
to do anything fearing the pain. I pretty much went to bed with some degree of head pain and woke up with it everyday. I had no clue what it would be like to
live without them. Sometime late in 1999 I went to my pharmacy to pick us some
prescritions, that were not working anyway, and one of the tech who suffered
headaches constantly was smiling and seemed so different. Her eyes were wide
open, she seemed happy, etc. She told me her Doctor had put her on Elavil
and within days her headaches subsided. I went straight to my pain management
physician and asked for Elavil. Two weeks later I started going whole days
without head pain. I went to sleep easily and slept till morning. I looked
forward to doing things. I woke up without pain. What a miracle! I have
probably had only two or three actual migraines in the last eight years. When
I do get a slight headache it usually disappears within a short time without
additional meds. Needless to say my entire life changed. I am a better wife, mother, daughter, friend. I take the generic and notice no difference from
Elavil. Thank you Elavil. |
| Side effects: | | None that I noticed. |
| Comments: | | I take one 150 mg tablet of generic Elavil at bedtime. |
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| | Elavil review by 56 year old female patient | | | Rating |
| Overall rating: | | |
| Effectiveness: | | Highly Effective |
| Side effects: | | Mild Side Effects | | |
Treatment Info |
| Condition / reason: | | chronic headaches |
| Dosage & duration: | | 150 mg taken once daily at bedtime for the period of since 2000, still taking |
| Other conditions: | | High Blood Pressure |
| Other drugs taken: | | Accupril | | |
Reported Results |
| Benefits: | | Since I was very young, a child, I suffered debilatating headaches. Often they became true migraines. They would last for days and days, sometimes weeks
without stop. I missed school, parties, holidays. I was scared to make plans
to do anything fearing the pain. I pretty much went to bed with some degree of head pain and woke up with it everyday. I had no clue what it would be like to
live without them. Sometime late in 1999 I went to my pharmacy to pick us some
prescritions, that were not working anyway, and one of the tech who suffered
headaches constantly was smiling and seemed so different. Her eyes were wide
open, she seemed happy, etc. She told me her Doctor had put her on Elavil
and within days her headaches subsided. I went straight to my pain management
physician and asked for Elavil. Two weeks later I started going whole days
without head pain. I went to sleep easily and slept till morning. I looked
forward to doing things. I woke up without pain. What a miracle! I have
probably had only two or three actual migraines in the last eight years. When
I do get a slight headache it usually disappears within a short time without
additional meds. Needless to say my entire life changed. I am a better wife, mother, daughter, friend. I take the generic and notice no difference from
Elavil. Thank you Elavil. |
| Side effects: | | None that I noticed. |
| Comments: | | I take one 150 mg tablet of generic Elavil at bedtime. |
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| | Elavil review by 42 year old female patient | | | Rating |
| Overall rating: | | |
| Effectiveness: | | Highly Effective |
| Side effects: | | Moderate Side Effects | | |
Treatment Info |
| Condition / reason: | | insomnia - early awakening |
| Dosage & duration: | | 300mg hs taken at bedtime for the period of 5 years and counting |
| Other conditions: | | depression, morbid obesity, hydrocephalis |
| Other drugs taken: | | topamax, effexor vit.d | | |
Reported Results |
| Benefits: | | restful sleep |
| Side effects: | | carbohydrate cravings leading to overeating and overweight. I also tended to always needto increase the dose over the years. When I started using this drug, I was given a 50mg dose hs. I developed a tolerance and the dose needed to be increased until it reached 300mg. |
| Comments: | | I was refered to a pharmacology specialist to see how I could be weaned off such a large dose in order to help control my weight because of the triggering of the carbohydrate cravings for which elavil is well known for. I have partiall been switched to topamax( 150mg hs with 225mg elavil hs) and I almost immediately lost 15lbs) |
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| | Elavil review by 47 year old female patient | | | Rating |
| Overall rating: | | |
| Effectiveness: | | Highly Effective |
| Side effects: | | Mild Side Effects | | |
Treatment Info |
| Condition / reason: | | hiatus hernia, indigestion, acid reflux |
| Dosage & duration: | | 20mg taken once a day in eve for the period of 3 years+ and ongoing |
| Other conditions: | | dry mouth sometimes. maybe some dizziness. slightly groggy some mornings |
| Other drugs taken: | | motillium when necessary | | |
Reported Results |
| Benefits: | | Sleep very well, at least 8 hours unless something wakes me up. Hiatus hernia not there on last endoscopy. major digestion problems gone. some slight acid reflux/indidgestion if eating big/heavy/rich meal. otherwise excellent.
Not happy with side effects if miss dose or try to come off-very dizzy, sick, hallucinating etc. so have to take without fail before bed every night. |
| Side effects: | | slightly dry mouth. heavy sleep but good. |
| Comments: | | 20 mg a day at night. |
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| | Elavil review by 53 year old female patient | | | Rating |
| Overall rating: | | |
| Effectiveness: | | Considerably Effective |
| Side effects: | | No Side Effects | | |
Treatment Info |
| Condition / reason: | | fibromyalgia |
| Dosage & duration: | | 20 mgs a night taken everynight for the period of 5 years |
| Other conditions: | | none |
| Other drugs taken: | | none | | |
Reported Results |
| Benefits: | | I was diagnosed with a mild case of fibromyalgia, I was not able to get a good night's sleep for years because of the symptons of fibromyalgia, muscle pain and tingling in my back and arms, and I was prescribed this drug to help me sleep at night. |
| Side effects: | | No side effects were experienced by me, just a good night's sleep. |
| Comments: | | Before I started taking the pills I tossed and turned every night due to my symptoms and got very little rest, but the elavil helped me sleep thru the night and I woke up very rested and with very little pain. I took it for several years and stopped last year after I gradually cut back on my dosage, exercise and yoga have helped me manage my symptoms so I no longer needed help to sleep at night. |
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| | Elavil review by 37 year old male patient | | | Rating |
| Overall rating: | | |
| Effectiveness: | | Highly Effective |
| Side effects: | | No Side Effects | | |
Treatment Info |
| Condition / reason: | | Depression, tension headache |
| Dosage & duration: | | 25 mg a day taken one tablet in two-three days for the period of 10 years |
| Other conditions: | | None |
| Other drugs taken: | | Triftazine | | |
Reported Results |
| Benefits: | | Good for sleep and to ease a tension headache and restlessness. You should take it only at beadtime, don't take it before driving a car. For me there are no side effects because of low dose probably. Ideal to balance your mood and improve your life quality. |
| Side effects: | | Sleepiness on the following day |
| Comments: | | I started to have it after a nervous breakdown due to panic attacks. First I had 3 tablets a day, but then, with time went by decreased a number of tablets. I still need it two-three times a week when I feel heaviness in my head and it helps in 1 hour after taking it. Highly reccomend for those in depression, with the tension headache and difficulties with sleep. |
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| | Elavil review by 45 year old female patient | | | Rating |
| Overall rating: | | |
| Effectiveness: | | Highly Effective |
| Side effects: | | Mild Side Effects | | |
Treatment Info |
| Condition / reason: | | migraines |
| Dosage & duration: | | 50mg taken once daily at night for the period of 15 years |
| Other conditions: | | none |
| Other drugs taken: | | none | | |
Reported Results |
| Benefits: | | I have had severe migraines for over 20 years. Since taking the amitriptyline my migraines have decreased to once or twice every six months! As long as I take the "elavil" and watch for triggers I am now in control of my migraines and not the other way around. |
| Side effects: | | groggy in the morning, slight weight gain, dry mouth |
| Comments: | | I started at 25 mg and that increased to 50 mg. |
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