Posted by zeugma on March 22, 2004, at 22:47:09
In reply to Re: Sleep disturbances with Strattera... » King Vultan, posted by Sad Panda on March 22, 2004, at 10:58:43
> > > Diagnosed with ADD, trying stattera, has potential, but:
> > >
> > > I'm finding strattera wakes me up in the middle of the night, or makes it hard for me to fall asleep. Then I am a zombie all day long. Groggy.
> > >
> > > Any guidance on the best time of day to take it? I've tried morning, dinner time and bedtime.
> > >
> > > Do these sleep disturbances go away after a while?
> > >
> > > Perhaps there is something that would help me sleep? I've tried it with Adderall to wake me up during the day, no luck.
> > >
> > > Don't really have access to my pdoc right now, getting the strattera from a GP that is somewhat clueless.
> >
> >
> > You might want to consider switching to the tricyclic desipramine, which has nearly identical therapeutic effects to Strattera, is much cheaper, and in my experience on the two drugs, caused less insomnia with no daytime sleepiness. I got so fed up with the insomnia and grogginess after a week on Stattera that I dumped it and switched back to desipramine, which I had taken some months before.
> >
> > Todd
> >
>
> It's interesting, disapointing & disturbing that the older drugs are proving to be better than the newer drugs that are far more expensive.
>
> Cheers,
> Panda.
>
The newer drugs are new in the sense of being molecules that have fresh patents on them, but they are not new at all when it comes to how they work. Strattera was marketed as an ADD med when it was noticed that the almost pharmacologically identical desipramine was getting robust results treating ADD in children, but had the cardiotoxic 'TCA' label attached (and four children dropped dead for unknown reasons during the early '90's while taking desipramine. That opened up a market for Lilly to offer a 'safer alternative). I don't believe that we are going to get better drugs for depression or related conditions during our lifetimes. It may be that the TCA's and MAOI's define a limit for AD efficacy- since we have had them for over half a century and have not worked out in detail how THEY work, it is no wonder that nothing has come along since that has been any better.For certain purposes, however, Strattera is an improvement on desipramine. It is safer to combine with nortriptyline, for instance.
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poster:zeugma
thread:326693
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040319/msgs/327221.html