Been on it over 10 years and works great for me I walk or swim and do not gain much weight on it as controlling your input on a balanced diet stops the weight gain for me!

This is one drug I cannot in good faith recommend. It has no antidote if you OD on it and the side effects are plenty. It's another antidepressant and not a good one at that. I gained most of my 80 lbs on this drug, along with Paxil. I had sweating, night tremors, nighmares, dizzy spells, brain fog, forgetfulness, lack of emotion, pain and blurred vision. Never again for this one.

I tried it for my IC symptoms, and it did help for that, but made me feel like a zombie even at the lowest dosage. I had to stop taking it beacause I was still groggy to drive to work the next day after I took a very low dose at bedtime. It can make you gain a lot of weight too.

I have been taking Elavil for the past 10 or so years. I am taking 100 mgs. an hour before I go to sleep. I wake up early in the morning and have noticed weight gain. I have been taking it for so long, that when I see my doctor the next time (on the 19), I am going to ask him to take me off of it since it has done nothing to help me sleep at night. I would like to try Lorazepan since it helps me too relax and to sleep. I took it twice when I was on my vacation, and it helped me to fall asleep on the long plane ride - 12 hour.

I could not take it got really bad bad nightmares. Started on 1/2 the lowest dose and when tried to up it to 25 mg was not gooooooooood.

I live in the UK, and here we call it Amitriptyline. I was prescribed it by my rheumy for FM. At first, i got the usual yukky side effects, like constipation, dry mouth, sleepy, nightmares etc, and, i gained 16 pounds, which i know isnt due to inactivity, as i do the same amount of activity now, as i did before i started it in April this year.
I have learned to take it earlier on in the evenings, as, even though im on a low-ish dose, ( 30mg) i still felt groggy in the mornings if i took it late at night.
I thought it wasnt woring for the pain, and i tried to stop taking it. It was then that i realised how much it WAS helping, and it helped me sleep better too.
The side effects, definately outweigh the good!!

I have been on it for all most a year now. Its is like my mircale. I am able to sleep, and my pain is near zero. it can now and I can control my pain. I have had to increase dosage a long the year, I am up to 75 mg. I take it at night. I have not gained any weight, but I am very active. I think it goes with out saying if you are sitting around not doing much, then you are not burning up the calories taken in and you have weight gain.

Yes doug and friends for me it is helpful. At first I was only taking 50 mg at night, and it helps me rest. Then the doctor said you can take more and some people have less pain with elavil. So he said 4 or 5 of 25 mg at night might help decrease the pain threshold.
Now I take 125 mg at night and feel better when I get up, but pain gets worse later and when it rains, rains. xoxoxo deeeeee

I took amitriptyline (Elavil's generic) for awhile ( 8 months), gained 20 lbs while on it. It wasn't much help to me. I now take Effexor XR and get good benefits from it for my depression,and no weight gain! I also take Neurontin and Lortab for pain. I do have trazadone for sleep, but I try not to take it unless I have to. It gives me nasty nightmares, and I wake up groggy.

I only took one dose 25mg and the side effects were so bad that I couldn't imagine taking even one more dose. I didn't sleep, woke up feeling enraged - anxiety and anger through the roof which lasted half the day, and an extremely dry mouth & thirst that I couldn't quench with large amounts of water. I'd rather suffer through pain than deal with feeling like Mr. Hyde.

Not sure if these side effects would subside if I stuck with it for awhile longer. I have no idea if it works for pain.

I have taken Elavil for about 15 years and it has help tremendously. I have gained wieght but I need my sleep and this does it for me. Right now I am trying to switch over to Trazadone because I have put on way to much weight with the Elavil and Neurontin so I want off of it for a while.

Bottom line great sleep med but I need a break from it!!

Even at the lowest dose of Elavil, it still made me very groggy for a good amount of time the next day. I stopped taking it.

I take it and have been on it for years. It helps me sleep good.

I've taken it for years and I have gained some weight that I'm sure is from it causing an increase in craving sweets. I've cut back from 20mg to only 10mg at night before bed. It does help me sleep through the night...BUT it doesn't help the pain level at all! And no amount of sleep helps it either. I'm thinking of quitting it so I can lose this weight (about 20 lbs.).....I might try some natural herb teas at bed time instead. Elavil is a great sleep aid but it's an anti depressant not a pain reliever.

I'm not sure if this is considered an old post but since it's been bumped I'm going to respond. Elavil appears to be an essential med to me.

I've tried to stop it several times to see if something else was going on with another med. I've been successful but with the same results,, there is always a lot of pain without it.

One of those time is actually right now that I'm trying to remove it from my med arsenal.... I'm having the same results. A lot of pain when I stop it.