Posted by King Vultan on April 16, 2004, at 8:13:38
In reply to Trazodone, posted by Flipsactown on April 15, 2004, at 19:38:42
In this article, in the section "Combinations with other antidepressants," it mentions trazodone being used to treat insomnia with MAOIs and provides a reference to an original journal article. I've carefully looked at the pharmacology of trazodone myself and have come to the conclusion that it is quite safe to use with MAOIs.
http://www.currentpsychiatry.com/2002_06/06_02_maoi.asp
I don't know if your current doctor would consider prescribing a small dose of a sedating tricyclic, either, but Surmontil (trimipramine) does not block amine reuptake and is completely safe to use with an MAOI. I do not quite understand his reluctance to prescribe Ambien, which is a relatively safe and problem free sleep aid. If he is concerned about you building dependence/tolerance, perhaps you could compromise by agreeing to only use it a certain number of days a week or every 2nd or 3rd night.
I've also been suffering with insomnia from Nardil, as I won't be seeing my doctor for another week to talk to him about the trazodone. I did send him some info on it, though (including the above article). I do have a small amount of Ambien left (enough for three nights at 5 mg each) from a very old prescription and have been plugging the gap with a Dr. Jeffrey Thompson sleep/rejuvenation CD--one of those that works on delta waves--because I was absolutely dying only getting two to three hours of sleep a night. The silly thing has worked to some extent, and I've ordered some lightweight headphones to use with it while sleeping, as it is recorded binaurally and is optimized for headphone use.
Todd
poster:King Vultan
thread:336728
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040412/msgs/336845.html