Amitriptyline and pregabalin - safe together??

Everyday living
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Hi everyone, I have been taking Amitriptyline as prescribed by my neuro since Feb, increasing the dosage by 10mg per month and am now at 40mg per day. I saw my MS nurse a couple of weeks ago and she has asked my GP to prescribe pregabalin, starting at 25mg twice a day, and increasing the dose as I feel until I notice a difference. My GP has given me the pregabalin, but wasn’t sure if it should be taken alongside the Amitriptyline or instead of. My MS nurse is away for 2 weeks, and so I can’t ring and ask her. My GP rang me back and said that he has found that the two shouldn’t be taken together, although the MS nurse hadn’t said that I would need to stop the Amitriptyline. Does anyone have any experience of taking the two together? Is it ok to just stop the Amitriptyline without reducing the dose slowly? Thanks for any help :slight_smile: x

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I take both as advised by the Pain Clinic. I take 50mg amitryptyline at night and 100mg pregabalin in the morning and 150 mg at night.

It hasn’t been a problem so you shouldn’t worry. Amitryptyline should be stopped slowly over a few weeks gradually decreasing the dose. I would wait till your MS nurse comes back and then see if she wanted you to stop it. In the meantime it won’t cause you any problems taking both together.

Hope that helps,

Sarah x

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Hi Nicky Good advice from Sarah. Apparently, I am told, the only time they are contraindicated is if the gabapentin is prescribed for epilepsy, and the amytryptilline hinders it. But if it is used for pain then the amytryptilline works well with it. I have taken the two together in the past. Sam x

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Thank you both for all your help

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I don’t know what happened there but the rest of my post disappeared… I was going to thank you both for your help, and tell you that my hubby remembered the nurse telling me to take both at the same time, so that’s what I’m going to do! I blame my MS brain for forgetting everything, so it’s a good job my husband came with me lol :slight_smile: Thanks again for all your help xx

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Hi everybody,

first time here. Diagnosed with RRMS in the summer of 2014 at the age of 55. I take Tecfidera since the summer of 2015. As explained by my MS nurse, I experienced some minor side effects but that 's all. I am lucky that I have not to experienced additional flare-ups or relapses. Question: Am I now out of the woods? Or is there no such thing with MS? I wish everybody all the best. Stay strong!

Jan

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hi jan

be a positive person but don’t take your eye off your ms because it is a sneaky devil.

i had two years when i felt so well that i even went to a festival on my own, had a fantastic time and came home thinking that the power of positive thought had made my ms behave.

then ms came back at me! kicking my arse and still is.

good to be on such an effective DMD as tecfidera!

i take it too.

hope you continue to do well

carole x

oh and jan you have added you post to someone else’s post.

not a problem to us all but you may have got more replies if you start a thread of your own