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A Warning on Long-Term Use of Ambien

Posted by Gerry S. on July 4, 2001, at 9:26:06

I was taking 15-20mg Ambien nightly for much of the past year. At the same time I ripped through a series of antidepressants. They would work initially, but after two weeks or so I would experience this crippling anxiety, like I had never seen before. I also experienced panic attacks, which I had also never had before. My pdoc thought I could not tolerate the AD's and recommended ECT. The anxiety was as debilitating as the depression I was trying to alleviate with the AD's.

Anyway, before purusing ECT, I decided to run an experiment, which was to stop all antidepressants. I waited one month taking just the ambien. The anxiety did not lift. I then stopped the ambien. I crashed, and felt like a junkie after stopping ambien---nervousness, sweating, panicky, etc. However, after three weeks ambien free the anxiety has lifted 90 percent. My new pdoc says it takes a month for the GABA receptors to recover from the ambien.

This experience accords with the fact--that my old pdoc apparently was not aware of--that long-term use of short-acting hypnotics (sleep meds) can cause daytime anxiety. I am now on an antidepressant that is working just fine and the anxiety is nearly gone.

Beware long-term use of ambien or similar meds.

And god bless.


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poster:Gerry S. thread:68930
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010701/msgs/68930.html