Nortriptyline Induced Tinnitus Spike

Hey ya'll, after reading a study that said Nortriptyline could help individuals with tinnitus, I decided to give it a shot. Attached below is the study that I saw.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2817678

After taking the Nortriptyline I immediately noticed that my tinnitus seemed to be changing, going haywire almost. I decided to give it a few more days before I would make any judgments. After waiting a few days, I noticed that my tinnitus had spiked horrendously. Additionally I was having other side effects that included blurry vision, increased anxiety, increased heart rate (acting like I was on meth), and horrible nightmares. I decided to immediately get off of it. I had only been on it for six days at that point, so I felt like I would be able to handle withdrawal. I understand that sometimes anti depressants can cause tinnitus spikes, which may dissipate after continuing the medication for longer, or dissipate after discontinuing the medication.

Anybody else have experiences with Nortriptyline? Improvements, spikes, or permanent increases?

To be honest, I'm having classic tinnitus spike anxiety, and feel like committing suicide as I can no longer bear the constant increases every few months.

 

Nortriptyline has been studied for the treatment of tinnitus over the years and from what I know some people do well on this tricyclic antidepressant then there is others that will get no benefit from it and perhaps even a spike in their tinnitus like yourself. It does have a higher side effect profile than some of the newer SSRI anti depressants and is not the most commonly prescribed drug anymore for depression for this reason.

You were only taking this drug for a short period, the symptoms should settle once the drug is out of your system. The elimination half life of nortriptyline is between 16 and 90 hours. It takes 5.5 elimination half life's for a drug to be cleared from ones system.

Hang in there, hopefully things will settle down quickly for you

 

That's worrying. Have you been on Amitriptyline? It's a very similar drug. I find it helps my hyperacusis but not my tinnitus which is unaffected. It gives me wild dreams and makes me feel tired a lot the next day, though I'm getting more used to that. I was told to take it for two weeks to give it a chance to do some good and to get used to the side effects.

So I tend to take it for maybe 6 days out of 7, then after two weeks I'll take a longer break of 3-4 days off it. Been doing this for around six weeks and the side effects are definitely getting easier to deal with.

Hope things get better for you soon.

 

I didn't do well on Nortriptyline. It's a hard call on Meds, some work well for people and some clearly do not. But meds treat problems that occur with tinnitus or help with the problems you had before: example anxiety, depression etc... Meds may cause havoc to tinnitus but hopefully you'll find the right one.

 

I'm starting to wonder if all SSRIs aggravate tinnitus. I've been on Celexa for a decade now and I can't remember if it initially made my tinnitus louder.

What I do know is that when I tried switching to two different anti depressants my tinnitus always got louder without fail.

Is this because I'm adjusting to the new medication or is this because all SSRIs increase tinnitus? I'm scared to stay on them longer than 2 weeks since the loudness might not go away.