Antidepressants

[Wal]

So I've heard antidepressants can bring on dry mouth as a side effect. For those of you on them, have you noticed an increase in the dry mouth? I'm considering taking a very low dose (10mg) of amitryptoline for TMJ pain at night. I took this a decade ago for a few months and it helped a lot. It never gave me dry mouth then. However, now I have dry mouth already and it's worse at night so I'm wondering if I should even try it?

[Northernelf]

I take 25 mg and it helps a lot. When/if I wake up, I fall back asleep fairly fast. It also helps with the tingling I used to get down my arms & legs. Once I ran out for a couple of days and my pain shot up.

I noticed the dry mouth at first but it pretty much tapered off. I take my pill around 7 or 8 - couple hours before bed - and drink a bit of water before bed and I am fine. For our use, I think we take a lower dose than one would for depression - in fact I don't think it's prescribed for depression as much as other drugs anymore.

[warmwaters]

Antidepressants can be helpful for dealing with feeling blue, and some can also help with pain.

Some of them can be drying, but not all are.  Explain to the doctor upfront that you need avoid the most drying ones. I sometimes use an analogy to explain this - "My mouth already feels like I take a couple antihistamines. So I really have to be careful to make it even drier".  It's something most people can relate to.

Best of luck.

[SjoGirl]

Each drug and our reaction is different. Antidepressants did make my dry mouth worse, but maybe this one is a good one for you.

[Scottietottie]

Hi 

The most amitryptoline I could tolerate without an increase in dryness was 10mg. I initially took more - at night - but had to drop the dose. Good news was that even 10mg made a difference.

Everyone is different though - so see what works for you!

take care - Scottie 

[Deb 27]

Cymbalta was the worst for me. Celexa, some dry mouth and effexor 37 mg, some dryness. Wellbutrin, some dryness. What gets me is when I have to take an antihistamine on top of it or a muscle relaxer, that gives me a dry mouth. Have you tried any meds for the dry mouth? I've got some but I keep putting off taking them. Afraid b/c of my asthma but I've got to try. Good luck to you.

[Wal]

My dry mouth is mild at the moment. My TMJ pain in jaw and neck/shoulders is the worst at the moment. I'm not taking any mes for dry mouth. I just don't want any meds to make what existing dry mouth I have worse. It sounds like 10mg of amitryptoline will be ok. I took flexeril last night with no bad symptoms.

[irish]

Amitriptyline is a very good drug for these issues. However, it does cause dryness and it just depends on how much you can tolerate milligram wise and how much dryness you can tolerate.

Be aware that there are the newer antidepressants that can also help some with issues and cause less dryness. There are many other antidepressants and you may have to do a trial of several until you hit the right med. Some people take 25 mgm of Zoloft at night to help with their neuropathy. I would encourage your doctor to help you with this. Good luck. Irish