okay so, weird question..

[summer82]

I've been on amitriptyline for a year or so now, but funnily enough not for depression, it's for nerve pain (I'm on citalopram for the depression) anyway, I was taking 50mg a night in 10mg pills and the other day my doctor upped me to 60mg and prescribed me 50ml tablets and 10 mg so I wouldn't have to swallow loads of pills.
I've been taking it like this for two nights now and about an hour ago I woke up to a panic attack and my mind was racing. I felt like I was losing my grip on reality for a while there and I checked the side effects for amitriptyline finding this as one of the side effects.
Is it possible that because I've upped the dose by 10mg AND taken a 50mg dose in one pill, that it's reacting differently than when I was taking 50mg a night in 10mg pills? It seems unlikely, but I do feel they're to blame. Has anyone else experienced this with a medication they've taken for a long time?

[sandie]

It's strange that you should ask this question - and disappointing that you have had no responses. I was on 2 x 10 mg Amitryptiline for anxiety - taken just before bed time. Last week the GP upped my dose by 5 mg, and I am now on 25 mg at night in a single tablet form. Since then, I have had disturbed nights - and my sleep has suffered.

I too am wondering if it could be the increase in tablet and because it is now in a single tablet.

[MyNameIsTerry]

That's an interesting question.

These tablet forms tend to be in layers. This is why when pill cutting they say you should never cut down the side of the pill, only through it from top to bottom. Otherwise, you could end up with one half with a full dose in and the other with zippo in it.

Now, I wonder whether this has any bearing on changing from several pills to one? Logically if you take them at the same time you would expect they are releasing the dose around the same time as they are getting digested at the same rate.

Pushing any dose up could mean the possibility of side effects, although you would expect them to be less severe than when starting at the first therapeutic dose. But what if one big pill is digested all in one but several pills are digested at different rates for some reason? Sounds implausible but you are obviously both having issues.