Posted by Elizabeth on May 3, 2002, at 2:18:32
In reply to Ambien and other chimera, posted by paxvox2000 on April 29, 2002, at 20:04:39
> OK, here's the deal. I can't get to sleep at night, even with Tranzene, Have run the board on "mood stabilizers" from my Pdoc, but HATED them all (except Trazodone, however that exacerabted a urinary problem I have). Soooooo... I have gotten back on Ambien from my GP (he knows the other meds I am taking from Pdoc).
Hi. How much Tranxene did you try taking? My father uses that one. Trazodone is considered an antidepressant (not a mood stabilizer) -- I found that it just stopped working every few days and I kept having to raise the dose.
> Problem: because of the very short half-life of Ambien (Sonata also) I can GET to sleep, but wake up about 4 hours later, and then wake, sleep on about a one hour cycle the rest of the night.
I have the same sort of problem. I wish that there was a drug available that acted like Ambien, only for a longer time. The only way I know of to deal with it is, when you wake up in the middle of the night, to take either Sonata, or another dose of Ambien. (Sonata is even shorter-acting.) A full dose, not half. For me, this would mean taking 40 mg of Ambien each night -- 120 pills a month. Most pdocs don't seem to be aware that some people need to take 20 mg, not 10, so I'm pretty much screwed if I want to get decent sleep. (Sorry, ranting.)
Once I got the depression really under control, the early-morning awakening stopped happening so often. It's still a problem, but less of one.
You could try using a sedating tricyclic (e.g., doxepin or trimipramine). Many antihistamines can also help with sleep (e.g., Atarax; and don't forget good old Benadryl). I think that at least one of these two options should work for you, since the trazodone worked. If not, there are other things you can try. Some people use antipsychotics to sleep -- I'd suggest Seroquel, probably, if you're looking in that direction. Clonidine and melatonin are also sometimes used for insomnia with success. (A lot of kids with ADD take clonidine at bedtime and it helps them; I'm not sure what an effective dose would be for an adult, though.) There are probably a bunch of other things but that's all I can think of.
-elizabeth
poster:Elizabeth
thread:104454
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020425/msgs/104898.html