Elavil

I am looking at trying Elavil. I have been on Doxpin and went from 10 mil to 75 mil over a period of several months. It took away my anxiety attacks when I felt a IBS accident about to take place but it didn't do a whole lot for my "D". I still had to use Imodium. Prior to that I had been on Lotronex for about 9 months and did good. It worked perfect for me. Since they have taken that off the market it was the oxpin and Imodium but but now just Imodium. use from 1 to 3 on the average per day. After I went off the Doxpin my anxiety did not come back. All that stuff did for me was make a zombie out of me and gave me very violent dreams at night. My daughter has IBS also but she is in remission for now but has a flair up once in a while if she gets upset about something. She wants me to try Elavil. She says it does not make her sleepy and she takes 200 mil and functions very good on that. I have some Lotronex left that I'm saving for a trip this spring in which I will have to fly 1,800 miles to see my grandson graduate. Won't trust Imodium to this trip.

I have been on Elavil for over a year now. I take 75mg at night and 50mg during the day. I was knocked out at first as well, this went away after adjusting to the meds...for me about 2 weeks.The long term side effects my doc told me about at my last appointment prior to my renewing the script for a year is possible side effects to the liver. I am not a habitual drinker and have decent health habits so this risk is worth the Elavil since I have success with it.My post is in the "Living with IBS" forum. Look for my username, I tried to move the post up but didn't have any luck.I have been symptom free since the day I started on the Elavil...stopped the Lotronex about a month later (this was before the recall and I was scared to stop taking it).I have a little trouble during my menstrual cycles (about a week), but compared to how it was, I won't complain.Good luck!

Hi There, I am new to this BB, but I've had IBS since I was about 9 years old. I had about 5 very good years and thought I'd finally left it behind until about 2 years ago. I was on Lotronex for a while and had a lot of problems with that. I've been on Elavil for about a year and a half. I started on 125mg and was told to go down 25mg every 2 weeks. I got to 25mg a day and started having horrible P and D again so went back up to 50mg. I still had bad days, now am at 75mg a day. I take it at night and sleep like a baby. I have not had any lingering sleepiness during the day. I've tried it in the morning and did walk around like a zombie. Elavil has worked great for me. My concern is the weight gain...I was already overweight, now it has gotten so much worse. I eat moderately - very low fat - and exercise (things I've never done!) and have gained about 40lbs since I've been on it. I hate to give up something that works so well, does anyone have suggestions?

Hi, i've been on it or some form of it for 5 years, first I was on Limbitrol a combo of Amitriptiline and Librium it worked wonders, then all of a sudden it stopped working, i was then put on nortriptiline and it didn't work and the back to regular old Elavil <amitriptiline> 50mg at night it worked well for awhile. Not it has stopped working and i have increased it and increased it. I plan on talking to my Doc about other options and trcylics.Anyway the sleepiness goes away after awhile, you do gain some weight in my case that was good, i was way to skinny, there is breast enlargement in men and women <i didnt mind in that case either> craving for carbs and sweets, which i think attributes to the weight gain, nightmares or weird dreams or vivid dreams. Im trying to think of something else, i think my hands did tingle for a little bit there but i thought it was just because my hands are always cold. Oh yeah, your blood pressure could be extremely low because of the Elavil and if you take extremely high doses likw 175mg a day you could get an arrhythmia.-Cadia

I've been on only 10 mg's of Elavil, for about 3 months now. it's done next to nothing for my ibs-d symptoms. and it still makes me somewhat drowsy, although nothing like that first week.and i've gained some weight on it, but that's ok, it's probably partially from not exercising as much as i should too.i *know* my doctor (at the mind-body digestive ctr. in nyc) is planning to higher the dosage and see if it works any better.should i go along with this??? i have this feeling like i'm just gonna sleep for half the day again and not get any better with the symptoms. plus, i need to find something that *works, period* for me during the summer since i can't toy around and experiment with symptoms during my semesters.should i demand to move onto another medicinal candidate? or should i at least try 25 mg (which i'm assuming is his next dosage level) before giving up on elavil?i'm really undecided on this, and i've been trying to decide for weeks. any advice would help guys...thanks.methical

Hi I'm new to this board. I was on elavil for almost a year. I'm done to 25mgs of it. I had really bad IBS they gave me everthing from Bentyl -Elavil, paxil, you name it I took it. My problem is the D problem. It has cleared up alot because now I have Graves Disease and not IBS. Make sure you all get your Thyroid Panel done every year to make sure that you don't have hyperthyroidism. I thought I had IBS for 4 years! I have been through the pain of cramps and all the symptoms of IBS but since I'm being treated for Graves I'm doing really well and comming off the Elavil.Side effects were yes cravings for sweets the big one! I was up to 100mgs of Elavil I needed that high of a dose to kick the IBS! Until I found out that I don't have IBS or if I do have it its really not that often. Its possible I still have IBS but I just wanted you all to know that a Thyroid imbalance can really throw things off.

Thanks for the welcome to the board I found out I had graves disease when my shrink ran a blood test when I was on 100mgs of Elavil and spinning like a top! I was going so fast I could hardly keep up with myself. If you don't feel really hyper on Elavil it might mean that you don't even have Graves. I would just get my thyroid checked once per year. If you don't ask the Dr. he won't do it. I am very lucky that I found out it was by chance. First I ended up at the Gastro office from there I had all the Sigmoidoscopy's and so forth and they put me on paxil that was horrible after 1 year that didn't work so I decided I must be depressed so I went to a shrink and he said, ok here is some Bentyl for pain and Elavil to calm you down I'm like thanks ok. After 8 months I was a little better but I was really spinning alot so he ordered a blood test to see if he could raise my Elavil dose to say 150mgs per day well low and behold my blood test came back that I was Hyperthyroid to the MAX. So now I see an Endrocronologist and I'm on PTU for that and I notice that I have like no IBS I mean I have some attacks but nothing as bad as before my body was so reved up I lived in the bathroom with the D problem. It was horrible I couldn't eat without something not going through me and the gut wretching pain for 3 days after I really thought I was loosing my mind. Now we are at the Gynecologist office because meanwhile I'm trying to get pregnant and well I couldn't get pregnant either so Gynecologist prescribed fertility pills so I did that routine for a while and that didn't work he never ran a blood test to see why I wasn't ovulating sooooooo its all because of the Graves. I'm very lucky though because my labs are all normal and I could end up in remission in 2 years I have a 50% chance so I'm very hopeful. My IBS is 100% better I suffered for 4 years.Please just have your Dr.'s run a routine Thyroid Panel check along with the Cholesterol check. For some reason they do not do this but Graves is the most common form of Hyperthyroidism in women its very rare but if you think that you have the D problem far to much and loose alot of weight you might have a Thyroid imbalance