I'm on Paxil and Wellbutrin SR. They boost each other and have worked nicely to deal with the overwhelming depression that comes with chronic illness. I've been on paxil for 14 years and wellbutrin for ... 10 I think. I'm usually a positive person and I wasn't before I began taking them. Also, I no longer want to die every single day.
I have seen a pain management specialist and all it really did was get me hooked on narcotics and opiates. Don't get me wrong, on my horrible pain days I wish I had them but I'm glad I don't have them on hand. I liked them a little too much. The doc also did nerve blocks for my headaches from a rare disorder I have. I also had facet joint injections and those "shut off" the nerves in my neck that hurt badly.
I also use Lidoderm patches for topical relief of random spasms. They're a low dose of lidocaine. I wear no more than 3 at a time for 12 hours on/12 off.
oh crud! I absolutely forgot Elavil. I take that at night to help me get to sleep/stay asleep. My life completely changed once we added that to the mix. I started to get more sleep.
Clinical Depression can cause body aches. With fibromyalgia , even minor body aches cause a lot of pain. So anything that effectively treats depression if you have it with body aches can help pain.
That aside, there is one antidepressant Cymbalta which has been FDA approved for treating neuropathic pain and specifically that caused by fibromyalgia.
Personally when 80mg/day of oxycontin wasn't doing it, 60mg of Cymbalta a day go me walking without extreme pain. YMMV.
I personally am not depressed at all.I was just told supposedly that tricyclin(sp?) antidepressants in low doses supposedly can stop nerve pain.Something to do with the pain receptor pathway.Nothing to do with depression at all.
Ah, tricyclic anti-depressants (norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors). From what I'm told they aren't very effective as far as anti-depressants go, but you're concerned about fibro.
There's one in particular, Trazodone (aka Desyrel, Oleptro, Beneficat, Deprax, Desirel, Molipaxin, Thombran, Trazorel, Trialodine, Trittico, and Mesyrel). It isn't very good for depression, but they found that is good for sleep and sleep-related stuff. Fibro falls under that umbrella. The idea is you take it at night before bed and it makes your sleep better in some unknown way, and reports are that fibro pain decreases.
Personally, I've had some bad effects, specifically hyper-mania with tricyclics , so don't know how well it works beyond the reports out there. A search for 'tricyclic fibromyalgia' will give you a bunch of articles and information.
This! MAOIs in general love my body. I also really recommend Kava and Passionflower. (But for those not in the know, you can't mix them with SSRIs or you will give your brain a big booboo)
I see that you're asking specifically about tricyclics.
Flexeril is structurally similar to tricyclic antidepressants (I learned this when I got thrown into severe bipolar cycling after months on it), so it's possible tricyclics could help in a similar manner with muscle spasms and so on that cause pain. There is also apparently a JAMA article confirming that they're the most useful of the antidepressants for treating fibro pain. (The use of them for that is probably off-label.)
My rheumotologist put me on flexeril years ago for pain. It didn't help me personally,but that doesn't mean it doesn't do so for others. All it did was make me hungry,which was a side effect I did NOT need,lol.
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I have seen a pain management specialist and all it really did was get me hooked on narcotics and opiates. Don't get me wrong, on my horrible pain days I wish I had them but I'm glad I don't have them on hand. I liked them a little too much. The doc also did nerve blocks for my headaches from a rare disorder I have. I also had facet joint injections and those "shut off" the nerves in my neck that hurt badly.
I also use Lidoderm patches for topical relief of random spasms. They're a low dose of lidocaine. I wear no more than 3 at a time for 12 hours on/12 off.
hope I answered some questions.
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That aside, there is one antidepressant Cymbalta which has been FDA approved for treating neuropathic pain and specifically that caused by fibromyalgia.
Personally when 80mg/day of oxycontin wasn't doing it, 60mg of Cymbalta a day go me walking without extreme pain. YMMV.
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There's one in particular, Trazodone (aka Desyrel, Oleptro, Beneficat, Deprax, Desirel, Molipaxin, Thombran, Trazorel, Trialodine, Trittico, and Mesyrel). It isn't very good for depression, but they found that is good for sleep and sleep-related stuff. Fibro falls under that umbrella. The idea is you take it at night before bed and it makes your sleep better in some unknown way, and reports are that fibro pain decreases.
Personally, I've had some bad effects, specifically hyper-mania with tricyclics , so don't know how well it works beyond the reports out there. A search for 'tricyclic fibromyalgia' will give you a bunch of articles and information.
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For the record, they're not the same thing.
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Needless to say, depression and meds have nothing to do with my pain whatsoever.
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Flexeril is structurally similar to tricyclic antidepressants (I learned this when I got thrown into severe bipolar cycling after months on it), so it's possible tricyclics could help in a similar manner with muscle spasms and so on that cause pain. There is also apparently a JAMA article confirming that they're the most useful of the antidepressants for treating fibro pain. (The use of them for that is probably off-label.)
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