# Elavil for Crohn's?



## Susan2 (Jul 11, 2007)

Has anyone been prescribed Elavil for symptoms of Crohn's disease?Has it helped?Susan


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## LeeMNAZ (Aug 8, 2007)

Our GI Dr. just put my wife on Elavil which is an antidepressant. He prescribed it for her IBS-D and after reading about it: http://www.drugs.com/elavil.html. I'm not so sure that I want her to take it. She has only taken it for the second time last night before bedtime, it seems to make her very sleepy. I'm not clear on how this is suppose to help diarrhea. So far, calcium has worked best for her to control D.


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## Gill58 (Sep 19, 2006)

HI, My Doctor put me on Elavil 20mg some 4 years ago, saying that the nerve endings in the gut are like the ones in the brain and the Elavil would help stop the diarrhoea by calming the gut. At first it made me sleepy but I got used to it after a few weeks, and now take it in the mornings with no sleepiness during the day. The Elavil helped a good deal - but not it wasn't the whole answer and I still had D from time to time I then found this forum, read about calcium, tried it and BINGO!! My stools are normal and I got my life back after 40 years of IBS! I wasn't too happy taking anti-depressants every day, but tell myself the dose is very low and anyway, I am so relieved to be able to go out and about most days as a normal person!!Good luck to your wife, tell her to stick with the Elavils for a while and the sleepiness will ease off. I felt like I was moving through cotton wool at the beginning!


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## JeffnSD (Sep 7, 2007)

My doctors precribed Elavil for me recently. It was great the first 3 or 4 days. No diarrhea but I did have alot of sleepiness. Then just as quickly it stopped working and my side effects grew stronger. I had alot of tremors, chest pains and drowsiness. If you can handle the side effects from anti-depressants..give it a chance..but I dont think its the cure all.Good luck!


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## LeeMNAZ (Aug 8, 2007)

Gill58 said:


> HI, My Doctor put me on Elavil 20mg some 4 years ago, saying that the nerve endings in the gut are like the ones in the brain and the Elavil would help stop the diarrhoea by calming the gut. At first it made me sleepy but I got used to it after a few weeks, and now take it in the mornings with no sleepiness during the day. The Elavil helped a good deal - but not it wasn't the whole answer and I still had D from time to time I then found this forum, read about calcium, tried it and BINGO!! My stools are normal and I got my life back after 40 years of IBS! I wasn't too happy taking anti-depressants every day, but tell myself the dose is very low and anyway, I am so relieved to be able to go out and about most days as a normal person!!Good luck to your wife, tell her to stick with the Elavils for a while and the sleepiness will ease off. I felt like I was moving through cotton wool at the beginning!


I guess that the Elavil 10mg is helping with the frequency, calcium is pretty much controlling the D BUT she is sleeping over half of the day, I'm hoping that will ease up soon, it's a good thing that we are retired!


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