Nortriptyline for Depression User Reviews (Page 2)

• Mom...
• Taken for 6 months to 1 year
• May 17, 2017

"It took four months before I could titrate up from 50 mg to 75 mg. I'm on it for dysautonomia, neuralgia, fibromyalgia, depression. At that point I felt significant improvement from the depression and panic attacks. I weaned myself off at one point for fear that I was having a bad side effect. I had forgotten how much pain relief it provided until I was off of it. This is one of the most helpful medications I've ever taken! It helps with pain, dysautonomia, and depression! I don't think it gives me bad side effects. I've had serious bad side effects from SSRIs, so I was very nervous but had to try something. I'm also on gabapentin, which helps with sleep and pain, but coupled with this drug I've done so much better."

• Bea...
• Taken for less than 1 month
• August 14, 2019

Nortriptyline "I've had Aventyl twice. Before, it was an effective antidepressant, and I was on it for years. Now, it helps me sleep; that's a new thing for me. I have not experienced any problematic side effects. Getting to sleep through the night makes life so much better."

• Ned...
• Taken for 2 to 5 years
• July 30, 2020

Nortriptyline "I was 13 years old when I started taking Pamelor. My doctor and mother decided to put me on this medicine. I had a very bad experience with these pills. Whenever I had an episode, they would up the dose. I started at a 25 mg tablet every morning, within the year, I was taking 5 25 mg tablets a day. Because of this, I missed out on a lot of things. I was wandering around so much that I was getting lost, didn't know who I was, or where I was going, or where I was supposed to be. I was just blah. Stuck in my thoughts, and I hated every minute of it. But it was not my choice. I have a nerve problem to this day, sometimes I shake so bad that I drop anything in my hands. It's very hard to eat soup or drink coffee when I spill it all over myself. When I turned 18, it then was my choice, and I stopped taking them altogether. A lot of my childhood was missed because of the pills, but on the flip side, I didn't get beat for having an episode as much as I did when I wasn't taking them."

• Kir...
• Taken for 2 to 5 years
• May 27, 2016

"I started on 60 mg of nortriptyline at the age of 65 as a replacement for Cymbalta, which I could no longer afford. I found that when it was combined with 100 mg of sertraline (Zoloft). This combination gave me the greatest relief from the chronic depression I have suffered from since the age of 15. But I was not aware of its anticholinergic effects on older people, which manifested at age 67 when I began to experience problems walking, repeated falls, lethargy, mental confusion, and memory problems. In addition to the nortriptyline, I was also taking Benadryl (over the counter) to aid with sleep at night, another anticholinergic drug. Both medications can be detrimental in older population groups and result in my symptoms."

• KLM...
• Taken for 10 years or more
• January 1, 2019

"I've been on nortriptyline (10 mg) for over 10 years and had experienced relief from my depression. I'm now asking myself if it's time to increase my dosage or perhaps try some other med (Trintellix?). Feeling some symptoms like anxiety, some loss of appetite, and just really not 'happy.' Anyone else experiencing this after being on it for this long?"

• Jay...
• Taken for 1 to 6 months
• May 4, 2018

"After trying 10 to 12 other depression meds for the last 5 years, my doctor tried Nortriptyline. It’s probably the best I have felt. There’s more fine-tuning, but this med is a great start considering all the past failures."

• Suz...
• Taken for 6 months to 1 year
• September 4, 2018

Nortriptyline "25 years ago. I took Pamelor for postpartum depression. It worked for the depression but had to stop taking because my stools became hard as rocks and were difficult to pass. I have had irritable bowel syndrome since as a result. I also gained about 40 pounds, and no matter how much I diet or exercise, I cannot lose the weight."

• Spi...
• Taken for less than 1 month
• April 26, 2019

"Felt horrible on nortriptyline during the 5 weeks I took it and never took more than 25 mg. Had depression, anxiety, fatigue, dizziness, and it sent my BP up. I tapered off, and I am day 16 off of it. My headaches are horrible. Does anything help with these side effects? I’ve been to the doctor twice this week, and he says it’s out of my system."

• Tes...
• Taken for 10 years or more
• November 24, 2020

"I have been on nortriptyline for over ten years for depression after I tried different ones which didn’t work, so this made me feel better and helps my depression. But my pulse was 68/70, now it is 80, and that’s resting, so I guess you take the good and bad just to function. Sad part about it is that I will be taking these until I die."

• Eri...
• Taken for 1 to 6 months
• April 21, 2020

"I was getting ECT treatment for depression when my doctor told me nortriptyline pairs well with the ECT therapy. I once had a bad reaction to Trintellix. Without having much recollection of why I decided to start this new med, I did. I felt ECT was starting to heal my depression. As a few weeks passed, I noticed major daytime fatigue. Also, every night I would experience irrational fear and panic, I also had a few panic attacks at night, which had not happened for me in years. Constipation, vomiting, worsening depression, thoughts of self-harm. It took me way too long to figure out nortriptyline was the culprit of all this. I was on this medicine for about two months and am in the process of weaning off. If you notice similar symptoms, speak up to your doctor ASAP."

• Kit...
• Taken for 6 months to 1 year
• January 6, 2025

"I’ve had debilitating treatment-resistant MDD for three years. I tried almost every SSRI and mood stabilizer with no improvement. After my psychiatrist said she had no other ideas, I found a new one who prescribed nortriptyline about six months ago. I started off with 25 mg, then 50, and now I have been on 75 mg for several months. The doctor checked my blood and found the nortriptyline was at a therapeutic level. My mood improved, but it didn’t help with fatigue and motivation. Plus, I was having horrible cognitive issues. My doctors said that the brain fog will get better as time goes on, but it has been getting much worse. BTW, I am 52 years old and I am in perimenopausal hell, which is also contributing to my brain fog. I now have another new psychiatrist who upped my dosage to 100 last month. My memory got even worse, have heartburn every day, and am very agitated. I didn’t make the connection until yesterday I read that this drug can cause all of these things. So now what?"

• dor...
• Taken for 1 to 6 months
• March 16, 2019

"Nortriptyline is a great medication and is one of the only meds that don't numb my emotions completely. In fact, I noticed I was more attuned to things like TV shows and books rather than feeling completely apathetic. You really should get your genes/SNPs tested before you take this to make sure you're a normal metabolizer; if not, it may not work for you at all (ultrarapid metabolizer) or you could have too many side effects (poor metabolizer). If your doctor is worth his/her salt, he will also take a blood level of nortriptyline to determine you're within the therapeutic window for optimal effects. I highly recommend this medication as a first or second choice after SSRIs, even though it didn't quite work out for me because it made a preexisting health condition worse. It's also very cheap."

• the...
• Taken for less than 1 month
• January 8, 2017

Nortriptyline "I was tried on this for major depression. After 2 weeks on 50 mg per night, I couldn't handle it anymore. I ended up going to the ER because my heart was racing. I was at 125/130 beats per minute. I'd only been getting a few hours of sleep each night in those 2 weeks, and experienced the heart racing, brain short circuits, insomnia, anxiety, severe constipation, extreme thirst, and an overall feeling of disconnect from aliveness. As a teenager, I took Doxepin and Elavil too, and they were slightly better, but not much. These TCAs should be a last resort, like Thorazine and Lithium. Seroquel is much better. Good luck to my fellow sufferers!"

• Dad...
• Taken for 1 to 6 months
• April 27, 2022

"I have been 8 weeks on 50 mg nortriptyline once daily. 41 yr old male. I’ve taken almost every SSRI out there. When starting, I was very sleepy for about 5 days, then it leveled off. Anxiety is better, depression is better, and the feeling of impending doom has subsided. No constipation or insomnia. I'm still not really motivated to do much, but it’s easier to make myself get up! The only real side effect is heartburn. Good luck!"

• Sil...
• Taken for 1 to 6 months
• March 16, 2016

Nortriptyline "Nortriptyline isn't a very good medication for chronic headaches. My neurologist put me on 25 mg, 2 tabs at bedtime. It's supposed to make you sleepy, however, it's quite the opposite. It keeps you awake and makes you very irritable, and you still have a headache and causes weight gain. Medication, especially."

• Ood...
• Taken for 1 to 2 years
• November 28, 2015

"My psychiatrist prescribed me this drug after my neurologist had put me on it for migraine prevention after I was on 20 mg of Prozac for 15 years for depression and anxiety. I was on a low dose for my migraines, so I decided to give it a go. I take 100 mg at night, and the side effects, mainly irritability, were by far the most disturbing. I felt like I could've beaten anyone up and felt so aggressive! I told my doctor, and he added Vistaril and Seroquel. This trio helped me greatly, and although it did take almost 8 weeks for everything to even out, I now feel SO SO much better! Prozac was always my go-to SSRI, but Nortriptyline really pulled through for me in the end since it helps prevent migraines, helps my depression, and anxiety!"

• Ang...
• Taken for less than 1 month
• August 16, 2018

"This medication absolutely killed my mood and motivation. It also triggered severe acid reflux. I have GERD and hadn't had this bad of a flare-up in 10 years. I suffered through it for 10 days and took Zantac, but when I was dry heaving by the end of every meal and continuously had heartburn so painful I cried, I gave up. No more tricyclics for me."

• JHa...
• Taken for less than 1 month
• March 28, 2021

"I have been on Wellbutrin since 2014, and buspirone was added in 2019 for my depression/anxiety/OCD. I also have an autoimmune disease that causes severe neuropathy and migraines. I take other medications for that, but they have been insufficient. My neurologist prescribed this to help further treat my neuropathy, and it DID work. I had no idea how bad my migraines were until nortriptyline reduced them almost down to nothing, unfortunately, it made my depression much, much worse, and I also spent several days very, very angry. We tried both the 25 mg and 10 mg dose. After stopping the medication, it took about 2-3 days to be back to my previous “normal.” I wish the negative effects hadn’t been so severe because it worked great for pain."

• Che...
• Taken for less than 1 month
• July 25, 2024

"I was prescribed this for depression, IBS (diarrhea), insomnia, and bladder pain. This medication was amazing and helped with all of these at 25mg. For sleep, take 2 hours before bed. For IBS, it can be constipating, so you might need a gentle laxative (Movicol or psyllium husk). For bladder pain/urgency/frequency, it takes about a week to kick in. For depression, I reached good feelings after about 3 weeks. I had to come off it as it caused awful reflux/indigestion. I was gutted as it worked wonders for me. I tried PPIs to no avail."

• Zzz...
• March 21, 2017

"I was prescribed this stuff for insomnia, and the first and only night I took it, I had a massive nervous breakdown. About two hours after taking it and still not able to sleep, I began to feel slightly nervous and sad. I couldn't stop thinking about killing myself. I had to wake up my husband at 2 AM to help snap me out of it, and I never did get to sleep that night. Needless to say, I will never take this garbage again."

• ran...
• Taken for 1 to 6 months
• July 31, 2020

"Nortriptyline works great for TRD (treatment-resistant depression). Gave me a break from the relentless nightmare I was experiencing. Seemed to not do much for anxiety at all, and maybe even made it a bit worse. Side effects were not fun though: inability to lose weight, softening of pecs, heart flutters, dry skin, migraines anything above 25 mg, and brutal sun sensitivity. Like absurdly bad sun sensitivity. SPF 100 to walk to the mailbox and back and still have red, swollen cheeks twenty minutes later. Ultimately had to discontinue due to this as I can't sit in the dark forever. But worked better than any SSRIs/SNRIs by far."

• goo...
• Taken for 1 to 6 months
• November 6, 2016

"I used to take quetiapine to fall asleep at night, but when I started to take nortriptyline, I had to stop using it because these two meds interact. The doctors told me that nortriptyline would help me sleep at night, too. It doesn't. I have to wake up at 7 every morning for work, and I honestly can't remember the last time I fell asleep before 2:00 in the morning. The side effects of this medication are way more intense than any other meds I've tried. It does help a little bit with anxiety, but my depression hasn't improved."

• Cml...
• Taken for less than 1 month
• March 31, 2020

"I was put on nortriptyline for my depression and anxiety, but up to now, it did not help yet. The only thing it does help with is sleep. Thirty minutes after my dose, I get extremely tired and get knocked out, and after 10 hours of deep sleep, I wake up still very tired. Also, very hard to get an orgasm, which is a frustrating side effect. I never experienced this with any SSRI. Phenelzine also has this side effect but less than nortriptyline. If it won't give me any relief in 2 weeks for my depression and anxiety, my doctor will put me back on Nardil / Phenelzine 90 mg. This has very few side effects and at least gives a decent positive effect."

• Ale...
• April 28, 2017

"Negative: took the full dose of 125 mg (Allegron) for 3+ months for depression. No effect whatsoever. Started to taper off about a month ago, went fully off about two weeks ago: very annoying withdrawal side effects: night sweating, and now all of a sudden also stomach problems (minor but very annoying) and mysterious dizziness, uneasy feeling in the whole body, palpitations, and overwhelming fatigue and numbness. Would not recommend at all."

• Sal...
• Taken for 1 to 6 months
• December 29, 2020

"I’ve taken SSRIs for many years to control anxiety but got depression the past year after a few stressful events. My doctor couldn’t increase my SSRI anymore as I’m on the max dose, so she added nortriptyline, as apparently the combo is really good. I started on 20 mg but was still struggling with insomnia from my depression, so it was increased to 40 mg. It’s wonderful, and I no longer feel any depression. However, the side effects of TCAs are much more noticeable to me than SSRIs, which is really frustrating. I get constipated, dry mouth, bad sunburn, and sun sensitivity and cannot tolerate any more than two alcoholic drinks. It doesn’t make summer holidays very fun, lol. However, it does work very, very well. I’d say better than SSRIs. So I’m going to stay on it, but I do hope to come off it one day, unlike my SSRI (escitalopram), which I will happily stay on as I get no side effects."