Tofranil In 1986 I began a chronic bout(daily pain all day long) with IBS with cramps and diarrhea. I was seeing an Internist and a GI doctor. Nothing they gave me helped. After nine months I was referred to a psychiatrist and he put me on Tofranil. Within two weeks my pain and other symptoms were gone. But Tofranil caused such severe constipation and dry mouth, I finally quit taking it, and my IBS stayed in remission for a year or two.

Imipramine worked well for me in the past.. Had a few side effects at the dose of 150mg per day.
Took at night and helped me sleep good. Kept my runaway anxieties in check. After a few months reduced the dose slowly to 50mg at night and stayed at this maintenence dose for some time. Worked good for me

Imipramine/Tofranil The second time panic attacks began Imipramine and Klonopin helped tremendously. It also took work on my part as well by not avoiding. Third time (current) panic attacks started again Imipramine and Klonopin has helped me. Side effects I've experienced are at first nausea and anxiety, those go away, weight gain[good for me], daytime drowsiness, dry mouth, blurred vision, but all worth it because I can at least go outside of my apartment now, I can walk my dog, and take out the garbage and I can watch something other than the weather channel and HGTV.

significant side effects I was initially put on this drug when a family tragedy happened and I found myself unable to sleep and in a constant state of extreme panic, as well as tremendously depressed. The dosage my physician and I finally settled on was 100 mg in 4 25 mg tablets, because insurance covered more of the bill that way than for 1 100 mg capsule or 2 50 mg pills.

The drug definitely helped with the insomnia, and it also took the extreme edge off of the anxiety and, to a lesser extent, the depression. Because of additional underlying problems with anxiety and depression, I remained on it for 5+ years. About a year ago, the external circumstances in my life were such that I finally felt safe enough to try going off it, and so I've been off it almost a year now. In retrospect, I can say that the drug defintely helped much more with the anxiety than I realized. However, I've also discovered that one of its side-effects was also more pronounced than I'd recognized. In fact, the side-effect is so bad that I'm not willing to take the drug again, even though I am (sadly) looking for something to help with the anxiety and depression, which just won't go away.

Since not being aware of a side-effect probably sounds a little incredible, here's the explanation ... Imipramine is notorious for making people feel so tired/sleepy that they can't stay awake. When I initially went on the drug, my over all health was pretty poor from a long illness. Being tired, desperately wanting to sleep all the time, falling asleep at the drop of a hat, and struggling to stay awake were the norm for me and had been for a long time. There were many, many times when I couldn't have stayed awake if my life depended on it. (Mega doses of caffeine didn't help.) Probably because of this, the drug didn't make any noticeable difference in how tired or sleepy I felt. But my physical health improved significantly since I began taking the med because when I went of

Gave me my life back This was the 1st anti-depressant I ever took (1992) and it changed my life for the better. I never knew life before I took this medicine, it helped me to finish college. I suffered horribly from depression and this medicine took that all away. I made the mistake of going off of it after a year or so cause I felt better. There were side effects - dry mouth, constipation, a bit jittery - but it was all so well worth it. This medicine is what gave me hope in psychiatric meds. It saved my life, it brought me out of severe depression for the first time in my life and I am/was so thankful.

Tofranil-PM I also have fibromyalgia along with my IBS. My doctor tried me on this newer type of Tofranil. Not only am I sleeping better and my pain is better, but the IBS seems a lot better, too. My doctor said that he is glad that something is working! The side effects that I am noticing is a dry mouth in the morning, but not too bad the rest of the day.

This is the only drug I trust to treat this condition.

Tofranil-PM This was prescribed to me for fibromyalgia, and it is working great for that. I noticed that after several weeks that I felt better emotionally, also. My doctor says that it is fixing the depression that I have that goes along with having fibromyalgia. I did not realize I was depressed until then. My fibro is so much better, and I am definitely happier that I feel better.

The "gold standard" for depression and anxiety... This is considered to be the "gold standard" drug for depression and anxiety (or at least it used to be). It made me sleepy and a bit faint-feeling in the beginning and then resolved my depressive and anxious symptomology. I didn't have anymore panic attacks after a few days on this medication. My grades also improved again as my concentration and motivation were enhanced.

However, the problem I had was that I began to get tachycardia (i.e. 90bpm at rest) and I woke up one night with a racing heartbeat. My psychiatrist switched me to another tricyclic with less side effects (nortriptyline) and it was more tolerable.

NO panic attacks... NO depression. Besides the side effects, I have never felt as good as I did when I was on either imipramine or nortriptyline. It's a shame that I can't handle the side effects anymore, because I was a straight A student on it and felt so happy and motivated...I really loved life then.

SSRIs were horrible and just made me a nervous wreck

I am currently on Stablon (tianeptine), a newer tricyclic, and it is decent and has no side effects as far as I can tell. However, it is nothing like imipramine.

My psychiatrist wanted to add this medication to my regimen along with Paxil and Xanax XR to help my panic attacks and severe social phobia. It seems to help really well. I am sleeping better, I am more social and outgoing and my fear is pretty much reduced. It is said that tricyclic antidepressants aren't very effective for panic disorder or social phobia but not for my case I guess. I am very fortunate not to have any side effects except for sedation and this body high feeling but I am sure many other people will get side effects so I would recommend you try an SSRI or SNRI or possibly a benzodiazepine like Xanax before you try tricyclics since they are better tolerated.