Is It Safe To Increase The Dose Of Nortriptyline To 100mg?

Posted on Sun, 24 May 2015

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Sun, 24 May 2015 Answered on

Tue, 9 Jun 2015 Last reviewed on

Question : I'm on 85 mg of nortriptylene for 5 days. I need to increase the dosage and get up to 100 mgs. I take it with 0.5 mgs of klonopin. I have hyperventilation attacks when I am eating and need to increase the meds as soon as possible. Can I safely go up to 100 mgs of nortriptylene tonight?

Answered by Dr. Shubham Mehta (5 hours later)

Brief Answer:
can increase the dose.

Detailed Answer:
Hello
Welcome to HCM.

In my opinion, you can safely increase the dose of nortriptyline to 100mg from 85mg
The maximum dose of the drug is 150.

This dose can commonly cause constipation and low blood pressure.
Please take care of that.
Kindky keep your doctor informed about this.

Hope this helps.
Thanks.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar

Follow up: Dr. Shubham Mehta (19 minutes later)

Thank you for your answer. I take the klonopin which is a 0.5 mg pill at 12 midnight and also at 3 Pm in the afternoon. I just started the pill in the afternoon about 3 weeks ago. Will it be difficult to eliminate the afternoon pill since I understand that klonopin can be hard to get off of.
I'm on 0.5 mgs of klonopin at 12 midnight and then another one at 3 Pm. I'd like to eliminate the 3 PM pill since I have heard that Klonopin is highly addictive. I've only been taking the second pill at 3PM for about 3 weeks. Will it be difficult for me to get off this second pill? How should I wean myself off ?

Answered by Dr. Shubham Mehta (2 hours later)

Brief Answer:
weaning of from afternoon dose should not be difficult.

Detailed Answer:
You are most welcome :)

I do not think weaning off from second pill should be difficult because you already take 0.5 mg klonopin in night. Klonopin has half life of around 30 hours. So there should not be withdrawal symptoms.
You can initially reduce the dose of afternoon klonopin to half dose (that is 0.25mg) for one week. Then you can take 0.25 mg every alternate day and observe you anxiety symptoms. If you feel fine, you can stop the drug.

Kindly keep you doctor informed about this.

Hope this helps.

Take care.

Kindly close the discussion if you have no more queries and give your valuable feedback.

Thanks.
Dr. Shubham Mehta, MD (Psychiatry)

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar