pins and needles “humming” feeling in legs all the time now especially at night. saw gp who contacted hospital but neuro away until Monday so she has prescribed amitriptyline 10mg but after looking aside effects can’t decide whether to take them. is anyone taking them? awaiting LP at mow need advice
I take it…It appears the doctor/neuro will recommend a small dose and see how you go.This then can be upped by more mg over time if required.
I had no sideaffects and now on 40 mg per evening.
Charlie,x
I was prescribed it by my Neuro before diagnosis. Also, 10mg.
It helped me massively.
I was on the floor with exhaustion prior to taking it.
The Neuro suspected it was pain that kept waking me up at night.
I too had numbness, pins and needles and the feeling that a gremlin was in my hand pulling my tendons tight, painful!
It didn’t knock me out (which I origionally hoped it would) but once asleep, I generally stay asleep and if something does wake me, i drop off again so quickly. I now usually wake up in the same position I fell asleep, the duvet has not moved!
I take it at about 8pm.
I do hope it helps you, give it a go, nothing to lose.
Life is so much easier without sleep deprivation and the ease of pain.
Take care.
Clare
Hi Clare
This was the first medication I was given, at a dose of 10mg. It really helped with the pain and pins & needles I had in my feet. A bonus was that it also gave me a good night’s sleep.
My Neuro has since put me on Pregabalin, so I discontinued the Amitriptyline. However I would certainly say give it a try - lots of folk on here find it really helps.
Bren x
I take Amiltryptiline 50mg each night. GP started me off on 10mg bout 12 weeks ago when I started getting neuro symptoms like tremors, jerks, aches and pains etc., then increased it to 50mg about 4 weeks ago. I cant say I have noticed a massive improvement in my symptoms, but I do sleep better (not great) with it. Give it a try as I believe it is very good for some people. Im not dx yet but opthomologist and my GP seem to think I have MS and blood tests have all come back fine so far. I see an MS specialist neurologist on 3rd July so hoping to get some answers then as am getting really fed up with feeling so poorly now 
Good luck with whatever you decide xx
Hi,
I take it too, GP started me off on 10mg and told me to increase weekly up to 50mg, which is what I’m on now. I used to have a gushing feeling in my left leg, and lots of twitching, which made it very hard for me to sleep. This has now virtually gone…I do still have moments when it re-occurs.
I do sleep, but I find that it doesn’t ‘knock me out’ as I thought it would!..I sometimes find it very hard to get to sleep, but I am very drowsy in the mornings…
It seems to work for me, although I still have lots of other symptoms that it has not touched.
Good luck.
Wendy.
If you are undecided, you probably don’t need the medication. If the time comes that you need it, you will find that the decision is an easy one.
I’m not meaning to be flippant - it is a serious point. All pharmacologically active meds (i.e. ones that work) have side-effects, and the decision about whether to take them is a trade off between risks and benefits. If you don’t really need the benefit, any risk is too high. If you really do need the benefit, an element of risk (an extremely small one, in this case) becomes acceptable. This is always a useful test to apply when wondering whether to take something, I think.
Alison
x
Sorry, that was a stupid thing for me to say - please ignore me. If the doctor thinks you need it, you need it. I did not mean to suggest otherwise, and it would be quite wrong of me to do so.
Alison
x
thank you all so much for the feed back, not had a good couple of days so I will start tomorrow. this site is so reassuring and lovely to get info from people who understand. hope this finds you all well. xx
I couldnt live out of the bathroom at night without it.
It makes the leg pain go and knocks me out so I get a break from my overactive bladder.
I never take it later than 8pm so its not affecting me after 8am when I need to be up and about.
The one side effect not mentioned is I now dont hear what time the kids (teenagers) come in…or what state they came home in!!!
Pip
I’ve just picked mines up from chemist been on it for around 6 months now only 10 mg don’t know if it does anything for me but I take it anyway!! Next month I will be taking it every 2nd day instead of everyday so we will see what happens 
I was on this - 10mg - but couldn’t cope with the side effects - the constant feeling of being hung over till about mid afternoon every day even though I took it no later than 8.30 in the evening. And it didn’t help at all. as a result I was then put on Imipramine. Didn’t have the hung over side effects with this but it didn’t seem to do anythign else either. Now on pregabalin which helps a bit but again there are side effects (makes me feel sick) so I am limited in how much I can take and it’s not fully dealing with the pain though it dioes help a bit. Anyway, I guess all you can do is try it out and see if it works for you - for loadsof people it seems to be great - good luck!
Hi,
I also take it, and it really does help! The only down side i have found is i feel a little groggy in the morning, but after a cup of tea i’m good… It’s worth ago takes a little while to get into your system…
Good luck
Andrea
I’ve been taking Amitriptyline for years. I am on 50mg. I have no side effects from it. Mine is presribed as a migraine preventitive and also to help with my sleep problems as it has a sedative effect (apparently) but it doesn’t help me on that score. It has helped give me my life back though and prevents as many migraine as I was getting. I was getting up to 4 full-blown migraine per week at one point, each lasting from 12 - 48 hours! No life at all
Now I may get one or two a month, maybe less if I am lucky. I don’t know if it is the Amitriptyline still keeping them at bay after all these years but am reluctant to give them up in case they come back.
well after the support, thanks guys! I have started and although legs still feel dreadful but I slept like a baby! neuro wants to give it six weeks. thank you again xx
I hope it helps Cocochannel. I am not fully diagnosed but Neuro suspects MS as found what he thought to be one lesion on my last MRI but he wants to wait 3 months to do another MRI before full diagnosis. In the mean time he did prescribe me Amitriptyline and have been taking 25mg since last Thurs and am increasing it to 50mg from tomorrow. It hasn’t helped as yet with my tingling hands altho it is v early days but like you say, it has helped me sleep - even if I am a little groggy in a morning.
x
How are you doing with this coco? I’ve been prescribed it today - hope it’s working for you
debc, hi hope you are hanging in there. I am fine on the amitriptyline no side effects going up to 25mg next week. I am sleeping well now and although it’s not made a great deal of difference to the pins and needles, humming feeling from waist down I think as I am well rested I am coping better. have you been diagnosed? or are you in limbo? I am waiting for LP at moment.