Nortriptyline and nausea?

Hi everyone.

So, on Monday, June 4th I started on Nortriptyline. I started with 5mg due to being med sensitive. I’m also on 5mg of Lexapro for my anxiety/depression which I started a couple months ago. Last Friday (a week ago) I started to experience nausea. I thought it was due to my menses getting ready to start (this has happened before and I can usually relate my nausea to hormones.) However, I started my menses on Sunday and I’m still experiencing nausea. Do you think this could be from the medication or the combo of medication? Has anyone experienced this? I always thought Nort actually maybe helped nausea. Or was an uncommon side effect. I know they’re both small doses, so it might be entirely unrelated. But I’m pretty miserable, so I just thought I would ask. I also have almost zero appetite. I’m actually now on about 7.5mgs of Nort and plan to bump it up to 10mg in a few days.

Thanks everyone!

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Whenever I start a new med, nausea dogs me for a couple of weeks.

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Thank you! When I started the Lexapro I had zero nausea. So this is new to me. All I know is that I’m about to throw it in the trash! I don’t do well with nausea as a side effect. But I’m trying to stick with it… I was thinking of weaning myself off the Lexapro, just to see if that would help. I prefer to only be on one med at a time lol.

I haven’t tried Lexapro. I failed topomax and amitriptyline. I’m doing well on Effexor XR.

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Can you try taking the nortriptyline with food? That solved my heartburn with nort.

Also a lot of people suggested I take ginger for nausea. Tea or pills or there are hard candy suckers…

Ya, my doctor wants to try Ami next, followed by Effexor and maybe topomax… although that one scares me!

plus 1 for ginger tea :slight_smile:

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I do take it in the evening. Like within 30 minutes to an hour after eating dinner. I just got some ginger chews, but they don’t seem to help much. Maybe I’ll make some of the tea! Thank you!

Take it with food.

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I literally take the nortriptyline with dinner. I don’t know if 30 minutes later is the same. But then again I have a pretty sensitive stomach and a history of chronic gastritis.

I know some people chew fresh ginger for nausea but I can’t stand that…too spicy for me! :slight_smile:

Nausea is the pits. The only thing that helped me initially was Amitriptyline. If Nort doesn’t sort it (see what it did there?) consider switching to Ami instead which has a strong anti-nausea effect in most.

I’m to the point where I take all my meds and supplements with food. My stomach purges violently in one direction or the other almost daily. Taking meds with food at least gives me a shot at getting them into my blood stream.

Ugh. That’s no fun at all. I’m sorry you have to deal with that.

Ya I don’t think I can handle chewing on fresh ginger! Yikes! I do enjoy strong ginger tea… I make it myself. I definitely need to make some.

I do this, too. I always look them up to make sure they’re OK to take with food.

There were two occasions recently where I forgot to take the nortriptyline with food, so I took it later in the evening (a couple of hours after eating). Both times I had some indigestion/heartburn. So I think it probably is a drug that is better tolerated with food.

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I don’t know why that’s such a prominent feature of my MAV. I do have several other health issues that contribute.

Ya, I think that’s why my doctor must have recommended Ami next. I wasn’t really suffering with nausea before this at all (except a couple times that was hormone related)… I had an awesome appetite. When I first started the Lexapro it didn’t give me nausea but I did have loss of appetite. That had subsided. Until a few days after adding the Nort. Now I have nausea too. I wonder if it would be better if I weaned off of the Lexapro. Maybe both is too much?

Oh my goodness you poor thing! I’m so sorry :worried:

It can be embarrassing and uncomfortable, but I’ve done this for so long, I’m used to living around it. I don’t make it my focus.

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gin gins?

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