Posted by Quintal on April 18, 2008, at 12:54:57
Anyone tried cyproheptadine for insomnia? My pdoc will only give me 14 days supply of zopiclone every month, and so far I haven't been able to manage without it. I'm really struggling because sleeplessness is a major trigger for hypomania (and even full-blown mania), and I find endlessly cycling on and off sleeping drugs makes me unstable - because I don't sleep well at all on the nights I go without zopiclone, or take a half-dose, and this affects my mood the next day. I'm looking into finding a non-benzo hypnotic to help me over the 14 days I have to go without zopiclone, and at the moment cyproheptadine is looking like a strong contender.
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1: J Pharmacol Sci. 2007 Feb;103(2):201-6. Epub 2007 Feb 8. Links
Effects of some H1-antagonists on the sleep-wake cycle in sleep-disturbed rats.
Tokunaga S, Takeda Y, Shinomiya K, Hirase M, Kamei C.
Department of Medicinal Pharmacology, Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Tsushima-naka 1-1-1, Okayama 700-8530, Japan.The present study was undertaken to investigate the effects of some H(1)-antagonists on the sleep-wake cycle in sleep-disturbed rats in comparison with those of nitrazepam. Electrodes were chronically implanted into the frontal cortex and the dorsal neck muscle of rats for the electroencephalogram (EEG) and electromyogram (EMG), respectively. EEG and EMG were recorded with an electroencephalograph. SleepSign ver. 2.0 was used for EEG and EMG analysis. The total times of waking, non-rapid eye movement (non-REM), and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep were measured from 10:00 to 16:00. Nitrazepam showed a significant decrease in sleep latency, total waking time, and delta activity and an increase in the total non-REM sleep time. A significant decrease in the sleep latency was observed with diphenhydramine, chlorpheniramine, and cyproheptadine. Cyproheptadine also caused a significant decrease in the total waking time and increases in total non-REM sleep time, REM sleep time, slow wave sleep, and delta activity, although no remarkable effects were observed with diphenhydramine and chlorpheniramine. In conclusion, cyproheptadine can be useful as a hypnotic, having not only sleep inducing-effects, but also sleep quantity- and quality-increasing effects.
PMID: 17287588 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
__________________________________________________According to this study, cyproheptadine increases both sleep quantity and quality, making it superior to benzos in this regard. It has a short half-life of 1-4 hours, so next-day grogginess shouldn't be a problem unlike with Seroquel et al - my pdoc's suggestion... I'm thinking of taking a copy of this study with me on Tuesday, and hopefully I can persuade him to give me a trial. I can't see any good reason to refuse, but he can be a bit of a pr*ck in that regard. On the plus side, it's so much cheaper than Seroquel or trazodone (I can't tolerate either of them anyway), and has fewer side effects (I hope). I've tried Benadryl (diphenhydramine) and chlorpheniramine many times. I find diphenhydramine too drying on the mucous membranes, and it tends to cause a bit of a next-day hangover. Chlorpheniramine is better - I'm taking it now on the days I go without zopiclone, but it's not very strong. Does anyone know the relative antimuscarinic effects of these three antihistamines? How drying is cyproheptadine?
Q
poster:Quintal
thread:824039
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20080412/msgs/824039.html