What Factors Affect a Sufficient Nortriptyline Dose?

Nortriptyline is a medication that is part of the family of tricyclic antidepressants. It may be used to treat mood disorders, bedwetting in children, migraine headaches, and other medical conditions. An individual taking this medication may require a different nortriptyline dose depending on what condition is being treated. Other factors that may affect an individual's dosage include the age of the patient, tolerance to the medication, and the presence of pre-existing hepatic, or liver, conditions.

Adults taking this drug for depression may take a nortriptyline dose ranging from 25 mg to 150 mg. This dose may be taken once a day, or it may be divided in half and taken every 12 hours to minimize certain side effects, such as nausea. Elderly individuals may also take nortriptyline for depression, and generally receive a dose of 10 mg to 75 mg daily. Like younger adults, geriatric patients may take this dosage at once, or split it into two equal doses to be taken twice during the day.

Teenagers and children may also take this drug for depression if a doctor deems it appropriate. The usual nortriptyline dose for teens, ages 13 to 17, is a series of smaller doses of 30 mg to 50 mg, taken three or four times a day. Alternately, a single dose may be taken, but the total dose should not exceed 150 mg a day, according to doctors.

Younger children may take a nortriptyline dose for bed wetting, also called nocturnal enuresis, that varies by weight. Children ages 6 to 13 that weigh less than 25 kilograms (kg), or 55 pounds (lb), may take a dosage of 10 mg every night, half an hour before going to bed. A larger dose of 10 mg to 20 mg taken half an hour before bed is used for children between 25 kg and 35 kg, or 55 lb and 70 lb. Treatment for children over 35 kg, or 70 lb, is 25 mg to 35 mg each night, half an hour before going to bed.

Individuals with liver damage may have their nortriptyline dose lowered by a doctor as a safety precaution. Hepatic conditions can often slow down their drug metabolism, or the rate at which drugs are broken down in order to be excreted by the body. This has the functional consequence of leaving some medications in the system for longer than under normal conditions. Smaller medication doses may therefore be used at times, in order to prevent a buildup of drugs like nortriptyline.