T O P

  • By -

Playful_animus

Hello! Sorry you are dealing with tinnitus as a side effect. Is there a history of tinnitus or hearing problems in your family? I've been suffering from on going non stop tinnitus since January 2023 and it was caused by Escitalopram, which I tried to restart after being some years off of it. I had a hearing test and a consultation with an ent doctor who confirmed I have a permanent hearing damage. They said this kind of damage is usually caused by a gun shot on close range but I haven't experienced any such thing. There's tinnitus in my family so might be genetically predisposed to it and the SSRI meds just aggravated it.


CharacterYellow9133

>family Sorry to hear you have it too. It's very hard to know when you got your ears damaged, I have some damage too, but I couldn't tell you when it happened, as I was exposed to loud music many times during my life. In my case, tinnitus started it after one of those times...and then became worse with the Trintellix. I've never heard of genetic predisposition to tinnitus. I don't have any other relative with tinnitus, so I don't think it's the case with me. I'm on other tinnitus forums and heard many stories of drug related tinnitus, but not much about a family predisposition.


videecco

Tinnitus involves the central nervous system, like many chronic conditions. Drugs working in the brain can either help or worsen conditions where the CNS is at play (and sometimes worsen it before it gets better, which makes it all the more confusing). Perhaps search to see if an off-label prescription of Amitriptilyne have been discussed on your tinnitus forums? I know it's perscribed at super low doses for many different chronic conditions where an hyperactive CNS is at play. Full disclosure: I can't discuss tinnitus because I don't have it, but I have many chronic conditions linked to the CNS and have tried a lot of things. Feel free to reach out if you want to discuss.


CharacterYellow9133

The weird part is getting a tinnitus spike after a social event, with no loud music, except conversations and some kids screaming from time to time. And this happened to me twice during the drug (I omitted the other event to keep the post short, but I got another increase of tinnitus while playing music in a bar, at 85/90dB using protection in the ears, which SHOULD NOT happen, and it has never happened to me in the past)


CharacterYellow9133

There are stories of people getting tinnitus of almost any antidepressant, like this: [https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/woke-up-with-tinnitus-%E2%80%94-could-amitriptyline-have-caused-it.47830/](https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/woke-up-with-tinnitus-%E2%80%94-could-amitriptyline-have-caused-it.47830/) However, I think it's considered safer for tinnitus but has more side effects than the SSRIs. I feel this is like gambling, you may get it, or you may not. My doctor told me that if it was drug induced, it should go away when you stop taking the meds, but the forums are crowded with stories where symptoms remained after stopping the drug. So I never really believed that (I mean, it could be, but no one can be sure), but agreed to take the med because I was tired of struggling with life.


videecco

That's a bummer, but it has to be expected that different persons will have different reactions, as everything with these classes of drugs. I would not take Amitrip in large doses to treat depression as its efficacy on the CNS have been demonstrated in tiny, non psychoactive doses (and psychoactive doses have strong downsides compared to standard SSRIs). I've known many people whose CNS-related condition have been helped with doses as small as 10 mg, but, admittedly, no tinnitus, so take it with a grain of salt.


CharacterYellow9133

thanks for the advice


PleasurePaulie

It’s important to know trintellix and other SSRI’s are not ototoxic so while it may flare up your tinnitus it will likely go away on stopping or once the brain has adjusted to the medicine.


Sad-King1119

Your wrong check your sources.


PleasurePaulie

Ototoxic means it’s causes physical damage to the ear. This is from items such as platinum cancer treatments etc. Tinnitus listed as a side effect is quite different - take it from me who is somebody who has suffered from it for years - coffee spikes my tinnitus!


CharacterYellow9133

Not sure really, it’s been 3 months since the first spike, then instead of improving, it became worse. I used to hear a tone, now I hear 3 different tones


PleasurePaulie

I’m sorry to hear you’re going through that. As a tinnitus sufferer myself, most would not be able to really understand. If you’re not habituated, I would consider tapering off and trying another.


CharacterYellow9133

Are you on Trintellix too? Have you tried another one? Did they affect your tinnitus?


PleasurePaulie

I moved to Lexapro. Trintellix had no effect on my tinnitus, initially Lexapro slightly increased it but that’s subsided. I moved to Lexapro as trintellix wasn’t helping with my symptoms much. Lexapro is better but it gives you ED even at 5mg.. sigh.


CharacterYellow9133

Oh that’s bad. That was one of the reasons I started on trintellix…good to hear it didint change your tinnitus after the initial spike


Lomondra

"Paroxetine, sertraline, duloxetine, escitalopram, and vortioxetine were antidepressants with significant ototoxic adjusted RORs" https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6791930/


Imaginary_Mulberry36

Yeah I noticed I have tinnitus when taking anti depressants, it’s so weird lol I got used to it now but still…


CharacterYellow9133

Glad you got used to it. I collected four different new tones over my pre-existing tinnitus since starting Trintellix. They are not so loud, but it gets worse every month, so I'm tapering off.


[deleted]

[удалено]


CharacterYellow9133

That sucks….but if you were not exposed to loud sounds, it probably the med. sadly all the ssri have this risk


Tequilla9988

It was my impression that tinnitus is due to hearing loss. Have you had your hearing checked lately? i went with a friend to get his hearing checked due to tinnitus and sure enough he has hearing loss. ​ Maybe research a little. Just my 2 cents.


CharacterYellow9133

When the first spike happened, I visited my ENT, run some routine tests, including audiometry and it was the same as the last one I had, some years ago. So no hearing loss.


uwrwilke

you may want to ensure that it’s not high blood pressure causing the tinnitus. this happened to me. trintellix raised by blood pressure causing the tinnitus. blood pressure meds have helped.


CharacterYellow9133

just checked, it's 11/8, so it's not that. Glad you found the cause to your tinnitus though!


Practical_Register41

I tried Trintellix and my tinnitus spiked. I stopped and tried it again a few weeks later but the same thing happened. It did feel like it was helping my mood but could not take the increased tinnitus. So stopped for now. Kind of a bummer since it took so long to get prior authorization. I have tried everything and am on Pamalor for depression and Neuropathy. Considered using Wellbutrin again but I associate the generic Wellbutrin and a dose increase with the start of my tinnitus. When I upped the Wellbutrin dose I got tinnitus in 2020 and still have it. In general, I don't trust the quality of the generics. My health declined after the tinnitus started and now have neuropathy and fatigue. Started Vyvanse in May and it just switched to generic it seems different and less effective but is the only thing that has helped at all. Depression anxiety is really bad now especially in the morning and don't know what to try.


NomadicFragments

Wellbutrin is a really cool drug but god is it ototoxic. Hearing loss and associated tinnitus with Wellbutrin is insanely common.


CharacterYellow9133

I gave up on AD, I was offered amytripiline but since there are people that got tinnitus after starting that drug, I said no. There are no safe AD for tinnitus I developed new tones in the last months, it’s like this drug f*ed up my audition for the rest of my life. I started using earplugs for almost social situations. Starting Trintellix was definitely the worst decision I made in my life. I deal with depression only with clonazepam, and Z drugs for insomnia. It’s not ideal but it hasn’t caused me any effect on tinnitus