Posted by Beliala on December 9, 2001, at 22:59:22
In reply to Re: Need help with meds/side effects! » Beliala, posted by Chloe on December 9, 2001, at 16:00:39
Chloe,
My scalp pain was initially triggered by an allergic reaction to hair dye years ago. Ever since then my scalp’s been really sensitive, though it’s usually just a minor annoyance. Anything that makes my hair shed excessively (whether meds or my own screwed-up hormones) tends to really aggravate the scalp pain....as well as some meds that I didn’t stay on long enough to find out if they’d make my hair fall out. The first meds that aggravated the scalp pain (and also happened to give me hair loss) were Ritalin and Dexedrine. I guess they must have made those poor nerve endings even more hypersensitive because every stimulant-type drug I’ve tried since has aggravated the pain - reboxetine, Wellbutrin, deprenyl.
I went on the amitriptyline (20 mg) and Neurontin (300 mg) to calm down the med-induced scalp pain. They really seemed to help, with amitriptyline probably making the bigger difference but I got a lot of side effects. After a few months I dropped the amitriptyline without the pain getting worse again. I eventually went back on it when my screwed-up hormones messed things up, and that time I recall noticing a difference within 24 hrs, with maximum improvement after a week.
Right now I’m tricyclic-free - the 4 I tried gave me acne which became cystic after a few months (idiosyncratic reaction since I’ve never seen this side effect mentioned). I wonder if tricyclics "quit" on me after awhile because I definitely notice improvement when I go on them, but no worsening when I go off. I’m on 800 mg Neurontin and I can’t say whether I’d be any different without it since I’ve been on at least 300 mg since around April 2000. My scalp pain’s still somewhat worse than before I ever took the Ritalin (but then the hormone problem hasn’t been corrected). I haven’t noticed any difference in my skin/scalp on it, though the tricyclics seemed to actually make it greasier.
Don’t worry about the length of your post ;o). As you can see I’ve written a book here, half of which is probably irrelevant but I couldn’t think of any way to summarize things better.
Beliala
poster:Beliala
thread:85770
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20011202/msgs/86423.html