tremor medication

[Guest guest]

Hi Tom,

Oh yeah, those da** tremors are annoying! I've been taking Elavil

(Amitriptyline) for about 18 years, nightly, at various doses

(smalal - 25-75 mg, up to 100 mg then back down to an adjusted dose)

for tremors, and you bet it has helped considerably. Now I take 50 mg

each evening.

Have had no side effects from it and learned a few things along the

way. For some reason, grapefruit and grapefruit juice affects the

Elavil, and takes away it's " work " . So, I stopped eating grapefruit

and drinking juice. (No other citrus product has this) I have found

some other medications en route that are also affected by grapefruit

and it's juice, so it is just not an " Elavil thing " . I just haven't

had time to investigate this mechanism further.

Something else about Elavil - when I am out in the sun (like

gardening or at the beach) it causes me to burn fairly easily - even

with sunscreen. Again, an " Elavil thing " that I haven't investigated

as much as I'd like. I know you are an outdoorsman, so thought this

would be important.

And the last Elavil tidbit is that before surgery, Elavil should be

discontinued for 4 days. Again, I regret I don't know why. And when I

had my back fusion, I did not discontinue it, but in the hospital,

they would not give it to me. Perhaps too much morpheine in me or

something.

At any rate, the doc who originally started me on Elavil really did

me a great service. Since then, I've had docs who wanted me to try

Inderal and something else - awful experience - felt like my heart

was going to jump out of my body.

I have also tried small doses (1 mg of Ativan), which also works. But

with my addiction history and the Ativan wearing off in a few hours,

the Elavil still seems the best solution to my tremors and my

lifestyle.

Hope this is helpful. Please contact me directly if I can help

further.

~ Gretchen