excess saliva

[Sunvista]

What do you other PALS take for excess saliva? My neurologist prescribed me a transdermal Scopolamine patch for its side effect of drying up saliva glands. It seems to work okay but the co-pay is a little pricey and I've started getting nose bleeds. Not sure that is related but certainly an odd coincidence.

 

[hjlindley]

I take Mucinex during the day and amitriptyline at night. The drying out of the mouth is just a side effect of amitriptyline. It also helps my peripheral neuropathy and keeps the depression from getting the best of me. I'm sure there are other alternatives. I tried those patches for seasickness and all I did was sleep. Good luck

 

[MaxEidswick]

>I take Mucinex during the day and amitriptyline at night. The drying out of the mouth is just a side effect of amitriptyline. It also helps my peripheral neuropathy and keeps the depression from getting the best of me. I'm sure there are other alternatives.

Ditto that!

 

[Diane H]

There was a very good article about saliva control in the MDA/ALS newsletter in 2001. That is pretty old but it is still a very good resource as, unfortunately, not much has changed since then. The doctor who wrote it commonly uses Botox injections and so doesn't discuss radiation as thoroughly so I suggest google searching radiation for saliva as well to get more opinions on that method.

The ALS Newsletter 6-5 | MDA

 

[ECpara]

My husband gets Myobloc injections in his salivary glands every two months at the Mayo clinic. They've experimented with dosage for about a year now and came up with what works best. He also uses amytriptaline (sp?) drops on his tongue. Excessive saliva is still a problem but much better than it was. Radiation was suggested as a last resort......fortunately he never had to choose that. We were told it would give him chronic dry mouth with no chance of reversal.

 

[affected]

The saliva is awful, but I would hate to think of dealing with the issues of a totally dry mouth too. Such a rock and hard place choice

 

[Sunvista]

What is amitriptyline? Is it by prescription?

 

[hjlindley]

Yes, amitriptyline is a prescription. I have chosen to use my local GP as the central provider of prescriptions since my ALS clinic is 2 1/2 hours away. The dosage varies so someone who knows you well should be prescribing it. It's original indication was for depression before drugs like Prozac came out. Just a word, it's considered to be addictive. After eight years of ALS I'm just not worried about that. Good luck!
Hollister

 

[affected]

amitriptyline is branded Endep when used as an antidepressant. I never knew about drops Hollister thanks for sharing that!

It has also been used to treat alcoholism as it depresses the desire and I didn't know that until after Chris passed but I noticed that he would not take alcohol at all after his peg. He would joke about drink mixes we could put down the peg before it went in.

He was maybe on too low a dose to help the saliva, or it was helping as he progressed but I didn't know how much more saliva he could have produced...

 

[nebrhahe53]

isnt amtryptilene tricyclic antidepresant. Are these safe to take with SSRIs?

 

[Nikki J]

No Neil. Either or not both together