Alimemazine-Induced Tinnitus

Hi all.

My symptoms:

Stimulus-Sensitive Sleep Myoclonic/January 2020
Aura Migraines without Headaches/January 2020
Tinnitus/March 2020
Visual Snow Syndrome/June 2020

I was on a medication for sleep called Alimemazine which is a 1st gen antihistamine. I also read that it is very much the same as Tricyclic Antidepressants.

All my symptoms occurred within half a year.

My worst symptom is tinnitus.

It's dominant in the left ear, sometimes typewriter tinnitus. The only way to mask it is to sleep with playing sounds directly into ears. I also have tinnitus in the right ear, but I feel it's more from the brain.

I'm afraid to test out different types of meds which can help with these symptoms.

I feel the symptoms are all connected.

Anyone else?

I really need some advice to cope.

 

I also took Alimemazine for sleep. It spiked my tinnitus something terrible. In the beginning it reduced the tinnitus because it made me sleep better. But after 2-3 weeks I started having terrible spikes that lasted for several weeks. After I quit the Alimemazine, it calmed down again rather quickly, so I definitely think it was the culprit. I'm not taking that stuff again.

 

I used this poison for about a year. I didn't connect Alimemazine to my tinnitus at first, because it's not listed as a potential side effect.

 

No, it's not. I specifically asked my doctor about it and very carefully explained that if there was even a 1% chance of getting tinnitus, I don't want to take it. He said there is no chance. I only took it for 3-4 weeks. Maybe I have a chance to recover. Yesterday I got new sounds in my head/right ear, they are almost exactly like you described. So I'm really worried about this now.

 

I hope you will recover. Did you get any other side effects from it?

If you Google Alimemazine/Trimeprazine, first results show tinnitus is a common side effect. I don't belive it's ototoxic. I believe it actually fucks up the brain chemistry. It has the same structure as tricyclic antidepressants.

I took Vallergan.

 

I haven't gotten any other side effects so far. I took Vallergan myself for about 2 weeks, but then I ran out and my doctor said they don't produce that stuff anymore. So he gave me a choice between some capsules or some liquid stuff, they both contained Alimemazine. He said the capsules has a "small chance of inducing tinnitus" so I said fuck that shit, I'm doing the liquid stuff. He assured me it was not dangerous.

Well, here I am. New sound that's flooding my mind, however it's not constant fortunately. It comes and goes, unlike my tinnitus in my left ear.

Is your tinnitus constant?

 

In US the FDA has not approved Alimemazine and in Russia it's sold as an anti-anxiety med. If you struggle with sleep, I recommend Melatonin, it's really helped me with sleep + Bluetooth headband for masking.

 

Maybe it's a spike you experiencing? Mine goes up and down.

 

Today I've had pretty dreadful tinnitus in my left ear, but I'm not sure if it's a spike or it's my regular tinnitus that's getting boosted by an additional, new sound. It's really hard to tell, since this new sound is identical to my old sound.

I'm just hoping it will all die down soon and that the new sound is gone forever. I'm getting a massage tomorrow. That helped a lot last time so I hope it will help again. I kinda wanna talk to my doctor about this, but I'm pretty sure it's gonna be the old "explaining it all away", like he usually does. He always has some kind of "smart" explanation, usually in the form of "you're imagining things" or "there is no rationality behind your suspicions".

 

Why can't they just say 'there are a lot of things we just don't know". Why the power trip all the time? I have far more respect for a doctor that says they don't know rather than ones that make out as if they do.

 

Sorry this happened.

TCAs are generally regarded as very safe, as are first gen antihistamines, and in fact many people on this forum have experimented with this drugs to treat tinnitus. Vistaril is very commonly used as a mild sleep aid because it's generally much safer than benzos or z-drugs.

So, we're all different, and we react to these things radically differently. I agree with @Chrisarn89 ; I do not believe any of these drugs are directly ototoxic, and it sounds like something changed in the way your brain is handling perceptual pathways which may have, I don't know, caused existing-but-unnoticed mild hearing loss to manifest as tinnitus, and once the brain latches on to the signal and identifies it as a threat, well, you're on the tinnitus roller coaster.

I wish you a fast and safe recovery.

I am 100% with you and I basically think of doctors the same way I think of my motorcycle mechanic: that dude has seem a lot more bikes than me, but I know my bike pretty well, and if my opinions aren't being taken seriously, I just find another mechanic.

In regards to my tinnitus my current primary doctor often says "there are so many things about this condition we don't understand", as well as "you clearly know more about the current science and research about tinnitus than I do, and that is valuable even if you lack a formal medical background". I like this dude and he's like 5-10 years younger than I am so I hope I never need to find another doc.