I know that various anti-depressant medications can either help with pain or not, but does anyone have any experience or know of cases where they can actually make the pain worse. I have been on Nortriptylene for just over two weeks and have just upped my dose to 40mg/day. The pain levels and frequency have been getting worse. Is this just coincidence, or could the medication be causing this?

Linda

Linda,w hen I started elavil, my doc started me at 75. 40 seems low to me, but I don't know..... I quit elavil because of the severe weight gain. That plus my stubborness at not wanting to admit I have a problem.....

Wonder if that's part of all this tooo???

Hi Linda, My experience with anti depressants and pain relief is yes I think it makes my pain worse, the drs think im wrong but i think they are the ones that need the anti depressants. I have yet to find a decent one, Dr or drug. Hope you are having better luck. I have a lot of pain from fibro and also from dystonia and neuropathy and nothing seems to help and it is driving me nuts.My daughters diabetic dr told me today my neurontin needs to be increased at least 3 times the amt it is to be effective for what i have so I have an appt with my neuro Monday and im gonna run it by him and see what he says.. Sorry for rambling on. Hope you feel better soon...............Rita

Most antidepressants have side effects of headache, nausea, and depression. For our daughters' all the higher dosages than the lowest normally started with have caused more headaches, nausea, and general body pain. Most have caused trouble and some are neutral (it doesn't matter whether you take them or not). I have been told that each individual has a particular medication that works well and a very narrow window of dosage where these work. It takes lots of time and you taking note of how you feel to get it right.