Brief Answer:
Will not treat tinnitus....may cause side effects

Detailed Answer:
Good evening. Thank your for your question.

If your primary problem is tinnitus then, if I were your doctor my goal would be to discover the cause of the tinnitus. You may have a neuropathy of the acoustic nerve due to aspirin use in the past. Or you may have the more common problem of hearing loss which is often associated with tinnitus.

If you can get the tinnitus evaluated by audiometry professionals or even ENT then, they should be able to determine the frequency at which your tinnitus is "sounding" in your head and provide you with a noise cancellation device that you can put in your ear. The tiny device sends WHITE NOISE SIGNALS into your ear which should exactly cancel the frequency of the tinnitus and bingo....problem solved.

Amitriptyline will not address this problem. However, in some patients amitriptyline does allow people to relax and sleep more easily throughout the night. In my experience, however, amitriptyline is fraught with side effects such as dry eyes, dry mouth, vague GI symptoms and is a frequent reason why patients stop taking the drug. I always prescribe NORTRIPTYLINE for most of my patients and rarely if ever use amitriptyline anymore. Just too difficult for most people to handle at clinically effective doses. About the dose itself....25 mg. is a reasonable dose for someone your size...but it again I question why it's being used. Now, if you end up taking 2 or 3 pills...well, then, I can't say how you'd react but I wouldn't be surprised if you end of having many of the symptoms I just told you about which nobody really cares for.

If it is being used as a sleep adjunct then, I would probably recommend you try something on the order of melatonin instead.

If, the tricyclic has to be used (i.e. amitriptyline/nortriptyline/etc.) then, the way I typically have my patients find the BEST DOSE for their symptoms (and their size) is to have them start at 10mg. at bedtime and to take this dose for 1 week. If the reason for taking it is not achieved at the end of the week then, I increase the dose to 20mg. at bedtime for another week...and so the cycle goes, week by week, increase by 10mg. up to a maximum of 50mg. nightly. I rarely go above 50mg. since the number of people who suddenly respond to something above 50 is very very very small. I would just as soon find something else to use if I couldn't get a response by 50mg. Make sense?

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This query has utilized a total of 15 minutes of professional time in research, review, and synthesis for the purpose of formulating a return statement.

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