Low-Dose Nortriptyline for Tinnitus?

[Matchbox]

I'm glad Amitriptyline helps you a bit at least! How do you think it makes you worse?

Amitriptyline is what gave me this horrible head drilling. I swore I would never get back to it but here I'm thinking about it again. It's this or life, I just don't know how to cope anymore. I don't sleep at all.

There are things other than SSRIs that can work ad hoc. I find Melatonin with Magnesium is fairly good at inducing sleepy time.

 

[kingsfan]

There are things other than SSRIs that can work ad hoc. I find Melatonin with Magnesium is fairly good at inducing sleepy time.

I agree. Melatonin is a lifesaver for me. I'm on Nortriptyline right now, which is supposed to help with sleep, but doesn't make tired at all. It may be that I'm not at the right dosage.

 

[Matchbox]

I agree. Melatonin is a lifesaver for me. I'm on Nortriptyline right now, which is supposed to help with sleep, but doesn't make tired at all. It may be that I'm not at the right dosage.

Try a lower dosage. It's interesting it doesn't knock you out. Amitriptyline might be better.

 

[kingsfan]

Try a lower dosage. It's interesting it doesn't knock you out. Amitriptyline might be better.

I'm actually glad it doesn't knock me out. I'm still on a super low dose, 10 mg. I went up to 20 mg for a few days but my tinnitus spiked and I was worried it was the culprit. Even 20 mg didn't make me drowsy at all. I had a major surge of depression for a couple days after going down, but I feel good again today. I didn't think only a few days could cause any withdrawal symptoms. Could have all been by chance.

 

[kingsfan]

Final verdict.

It seems I can't take more than 10 mg per day or else the hissing in my head gets louder. It has no effect on the pure tones in my left ear nor the static in my right. It only affects the high pitched hissing I have. I'm not sure what this means but is interesting.

It hasn't lowered any tones, but has helped decently with my moods and ability to handle my tinnitus. I'm sure any antidepressant would have the same effects.

The one thing I cannot tolerate anymore is the dry mouth.

I'm going to stop taking this medication once I have my next doctor appointment. I am interested in trying another antidepressant though. The only question, will that make my tinnitus worse...

 

[kingsfan]

I had my long-awaited appointment with Dr. Djalilian at UCI today.

First of all, I advise anyone reading this to refuse any Otoacoustic Emissions Test along with the Acoustic Reflex Test. I made it clear I did not want to take the Acoustic Reflex Test but was assured the Otoacoustic Emissions Test was much quieter. While it wasn't as loud, my tinnitus has been going haywire ever since. Hopefully it subsides and I didn't once again worsen my tinnitus with another audiology test.

As for my actual appointment with the doctor. Well, he is treating tinnitus as migraines. I'm not really sure how I feel about this, or if anyone else has heard of this. But I'm basically supposed to eat some special migraine diet and the usual tinnitus advice.. get enough sleep, drink enough water, stop caffeine, reduce stress. I was also told intermittent fasting is bad for migraines/tinnitus? He said since Nortriptyline was spiking my tinnitus, but I tolerated the initial 10 mg/day, we may try upping the dose even slower with its liquid form. That would allow me to gradually go up a couple mg at a time.

I'm not entirely convinced and a little bummed... oh and super stressed that I messed up my ears even more! yay! I'm going to try all of this anyway. Not sure if anyone has done this whole combination of stuff at the same time.

Any thoughts about this are welcome. I knew there wouldn't be a magic pill, and I did happen to get some crazy headaches for about year before my tinnitus came about. So maybe there is some sort of connection? I don't know..

 

[Lukee]

I had my long-awaited appointment with Dr. Djalilian at UCI today.

First of all, I advise anyone reading this to refuse any Otoacoustic Emissions Test along with the Acoustic Reflex Test. I made it clear I did not want to take the Acoustic Reflex Test but was assured the Otoacoustic Emissions Test was much quieter. While it wasn't as loud, my tinnitus has been going haywire ever since. Hopefully it subsides and I didn't once again worsen my tinnitus with another audiology test.

As for my actual appointment with the doctor. Well, he is treating tinnitus as migraines. I'm not really sure how I feel about this, or if anyone else has heard of this. But I'm basically supposed to eat some special migraine diet and the usual tinnitus advice.. get enough sleep, drink enough water, stop caffeine, reduce stress. I was also told intermittent fasting is bad for migraines/tinnitus? He said since Nortriptyline was spiking my tinnitus, but I tolerated the initial 10 mg/day, we may try upping the dose even slower with its liquid form. That would allow me to gradually go up a couple mg at a time.

I'm not entirely convinced and a little bummed... oh and super stressed that I messed up my ears even more! yay! I'm going to try all of this anyway. Not sure if anyone has done this whole combination of stuff at the same time.

Any thoughts about this are welcome. I knew there wouldn't be a magic pill, and I did happen to get some crazy headaches for about year before my tinnitus came about. So maybe there is some sort of connection? I don't know..

I was hoping you'd get a more thorough workup and maybe a little more interest from Dr. Djalilian. I had higher hopes that he might find something physical, like middle ear related, that could be treated.

This isn't the first time that I've heard tinnitus being treated as a migraine. Some forms of tinnitus have very similar pathologies to migraines especially idiopathic tinnitus. My GP even prescribed me low dose Nortriptyline because he believed the same thing (I haven't tried it yet).

Sorry to hear you had a let down, hopefully some good comes of it.

 

[kingsfan]

I was hoping you'd get a more thorough workup and maybe a little more interest from Dr. Djalilian. I had higher hopes that he might find something physical, like middle ear related, that could be treated.

This isn't the first time that I've heard tinnitus being treated as a migraine. Some forms of tinnitus have very similar pathologies to migraines especially idiopathic tinnitus. My GP even prescribed me low dose Nortriptyline because he believed the same thing (I haven't tried it yet).

Sorry to hear you had a let down, hopefully some good comes of it.

I stopped taking Nortriptyline over the weekend and my tinnitus is feeling a decent bit better.

 

[Óscar PP]

I don't sleep at all.

Have you tried Mirtazapine? It's the safest and most recommended AD for tinnitus sufferers.

 

[kingsfan]

I stopped taking Nortriptyline over the weekend and my tinnitus is feeling a decent bit better.

Losing weight like crazy after discontinuing as well. I've been calorie counting since May and lost 20lbs. In the last week since stopping the Nortriptyline I've lost another 5 lbs. Only trying to lose 1-2 lbs per week so it's made it difficult to figure out the proper daily caloric intake for myself now.

 

[DebInAustralia]

I take Nortriptyline 50 mg.

It stopped my head tinnitus and I sleep really well on it.
No side effects. Only a little bit of tiredness when I started it.

It's been the best thing for me.

Bumping this thread as I'm interested to know if the head noise ever returned? Has your tinnitus disappeared altogether?

 

[IntotheBlue03]

Bumping this thread as I'm interested to know if the head noise ever returned? Has your tinnitus disappeared altogether?

I think @glynis still has ear tinnitus but if she could update us that would be great.