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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
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Posted by Joy on January 16, 2001, at 18:45:41
I take 20 mg of Prozac now which works well for depression/irritation, etc. I also take .5 Xanax for the last few months about 30 or 40 minutes before bedtime for insomnia. My pdoc wants me to take Trazadone; he says it's not addicting like Xanax. My fdoc gave me Ambien [5 mg doesn't do it; 10 mg I wake up in 4 hours; I don't like it.]. Also, I understand some prople use a small dose of Remeron. My question: Are docs over-exaggerating addiction of Xanax? What's .5 once at nighttime? Would Trazadone really be better? Remeron? Or should I insist of my Xanax which works very well for me??? Thanks. I'm confused.
Joy
Posted by Cam W. on January 16, 2001, at 19:10:25
In reply to AD Insomnia: Xanax or Trazadone?????, posted by Joy on January 16, 2001, at 18:45:41
Joy - Give trazodone a try. It is non-addicting and is sedating. At lower doses 25 or 50mg it does not cause the "hangover" effect, where you wake up tired. You will not build up tolerance to it as easily as you do with Xanax. If 50mg doesn't do the trick after a couple of weeks, you can safely raise the dose to 100mg. Ask your doctor about this. We use low doses of trazodone safely in the elderly, so it should be okay for you.
Give it a try, as your doc says. You can always go back to the Xanax if it doesn't work for you.
Hope this helps - Cam
Posted by Joy on January 16, 2001, at 20:35:11
In reply to Re: AD Insomnia: Xanax or Trazadone????? » Joy, posted by Cam W. on January 16, 2001, at 19:10:25
Thanks, Cam. I will ask my pdoc for Trazodone and take the Xanax till it kicks it.
> Joy - Give trazodone a try. It is non-addicting and is sedating. At lower doses 25 or 50mg it does not cause the "hangover" effect, where you wake up tired. You will not build up tolerance to it as easily as you do with Xanax. If 50mg doesn't do the trick after a couple of weeks, you can safely raise the dose to 100mg. Ask your doctor about this. We use low doses of trazodone safely in the elderly, so it should be okay for you.
>
> Give it a try, as your doc says. You can always go back to the Xanax if it doesn't work for you.
>
> Hope this helps - Cam
Posted by Shell on January 16, 2001, at 21:45:27
In reply to Re: AD Insomnia: Xanax or Trazadone????? » Cam W., posted by Joy on January 16, 2001, at 20:35:11
My mom has taken trazodone for chronic depression for about fifteen years. She started taking it during an episode of major depression during which she would literally not sleep for days at a time. Now she takes it every night about an hour before bedtime. She has no problem falling asleep and sleeps all night, every night. She has not had a problem with building up tolerance to it; she hasn't had to increase the dosage in all the years she has taken it.
Shell
PS - Before she started the trazodone, she had had incapacitating migraines several times a year since she was 19 years old. These headaches would last at least three full days, the majority of which were spent on the bathroom floor. In the fifteen years since she started taking trazodone, she hasn't had one migraine. She feels that that has been the biggest benefit of the drug even though that was not the reason for which it was originally prescribed.
Posted by JohnL on January 17, 2001, at 2:47:17
In reply to AD Insomnia: Xanax or Trazadone?????, posted by Joy on January 16, 2001, at 18:45:41
> I take 20 mg of Prozac now which works well for depression/irritation, etc. I also take .5 Xanax for the last few months about 30 or 40 minutes before bedtime for insomnia. My pdoc wants me to take Trazadone; he says it's not addicting like Xanax. My fdoc gave me Ambien [5 mg doesn't do it; 10 mg I wake up in 4 hours; I don't like it.]. Also, I understand some prople use a small dose of Remeron. My question: Are docs over-exaggerating addiction of Xanax? What's .5 once at nighttime? Would Trazadone really be better? Remeron? Or should I insist of my Xanax which works very well for me??? Thanks. I'm confused.
> JoyHi Joy,
I've tried both of these meds. Some people prefer one, some people prefer the other. Personally I thought Xanax was by far superior. Trazodone is a dirty drug and has multiple mechanisms to just confuse things. Xanax is straight forward and clean. Trazodone gave me headaches, nightmares, restless sleep, and a hangover, even at half the minimum dose. I think Trazodone is the worst medicine anyone ever invented.Xanax is leaps and bounds ahead of Trazodone, in my sole opinion. So let's assume two years down the road you realize you can't live without Xanax. So what? As long as the quality of your life has vastly improved, then that seems like a fair tradeoff to me. I mean, others trade away their sleep, their sex lives, their body weight, or whatever, to stay well on a certain med. Actually, it's usually an unfair trade...that is, they trade away things that are dear to them, yet the partial benefits are not always worth it. So being minorly addicted to a small dose of Xanax seems trivial to me. Besides, how exactly do we define addicted? I mean, I've been taking Remeron for sleep for years. I can't live without it. So in a lot of ways, I'm addicted to it. I can't skip a night without encountering very unpleasantness. Sure, the craving for a dose increase doesn't exist, so it's not a true addiction, but for all practical purposes it might as well be. Same with everyone else here who relies on their medicine day to day. The dose increase component is missing, so it's not a true addiction, yet for all practical purposes, we can't function without these meds. What's the difference with Xanax? Not much as I see it.
If you are happy with your current meds, then you could easily be justified in telling your doc you don't want to rock the boat right now. You just want to keep things going as they are and let improvement continue. No interruptions. No changes. Not now. Maybe later. And you might as him if in a couple years you are addicted to low-dose Xanax, so what? There's always a risk/benefit decision. It just seems to me that in this case the benefits far outweigh the risks.
If over time you were creeping up into the 3, 4, or 5mg range of Xanax, instead of .5mg, well, that's a different story.
John
Posted by Bill L on January 17, 2001, at 6:54:40
In reply to Re: AD Insomnia: Xanax or Trazadone?????, posted by JohnL on January 17, 2001, at 2:47:17
I've looked at postings on sleep boards and there is no clear cut consensus on which med is the best. I would think that 25 or 50 mg of Trazadone would be best if the Prozac has already resolved the depression. If it had only partially taken care of the depression, then maybe Remeron would be a good choice.
Ideally, it seems that either Trazadone or Remeron would be better since they are non-addictive. The problem with both however is the possibility of day time drowsiness. Also, the Remeron could cause a weight gain.
I agree that you should give the Trazadone a try first as your doctor recommends because you can always go back to Xanax. If I were you, I would wait until an opportune time to experiment in case you get poor results from the Trazadone. So if a big event is coming up, such as an exam in school or a big wedding etc, I would hold off until it's over.
I take SAM-e and Celexa. My pdoc said that if I ever need a sleep med, he would first try Trazadone over Ambien. Good luck!
> > I take 20 mg of Prozac now which works well for depression/irritation, etc. I also take .5 Xanax for the last few months about 30 or 40 minutes before bedtime for insomnia. My pdoc wants me to take Trazadone; he says it's not addicting like Xanax. My fdoc gave me Ambien [5 mg doesn't do it; 10 mg I wake up in 4 hours; I don't like it.]. Also, I understand some prople use a small dose of Remeron. My question: Are docs over-exaggerating addiction of Xanax? What's .5 once at nighttime? Would Trazadone really be better? Remeron? Or should I insist of my Xanax which works very well for me??? Thanks. I'm confused.
> > Joy
>
> Hi Joy,
> I've tried both of these meds. Some people prefer one, some people prefer the other. Personally I thought Xanax was by far superior. Trazodone is a dirty drug and has multiple mechanisms to just confuse things. Xanax is straight forward and clean. Trazodone gave me headaches, nightmares, restless sleep, and a hangover, even at half the minimum dose. I think Trazodone is the worst medicine anyone ever invented.
>
> Xanax is leaps and bounds ahead of Trazodone, in my sole opinion. So let's assume two years down the road you realize you can't live without Xanax. So what? As long as the quality of your life has vastly improved, then that seems like a fair tradeoff to me. I mean, others trade away their sleep, their sex lives, their body weight, or whatever, to stay well on a certain med. Actually, it's usually an unfair trade...that is, they trade away things that are dear to them, yet the partial benefits are not always worth it. So being minorly addicted to a small dose of Xanax seems trivial to me. Besides, how exactly do we define addicted? I mean, I've been taking Remeron for sleep for years. I can't live without it. So in a lot of ways, I'm addicted to it. I can't skip a night without encountering very unpleasantness. Sure, the craving for a dose increase doesn't exist, so it's not a true addiction, but for all practical purposes it might as well be. Same with everyone else here who relies on their medicine day to day. The dose increase component is missing, so it's not a true addiction, yet for all practical purposes, we can't function without these meds. What's the difference with Xanax? Not much as I see it.
>
> If you are happy with your current meds, then you could easily be justified in telling your doc you don't want to rock the boat right now. You just want to keep things going as they are and let improvement continue. No interruptions. No changes. Not now. Maybe later. And you might as him if in a couple years you are addicted to low-dose Xanax, so what? There's always a risk/benefit decision. It just seems to me that in this case the benefits far outweigh the risks.
>
> If over time you were creeping up into the 3, 4, or 5mg range of Xanax, instead of .5mg, well, that's a different story.
> John
Posted by super on January 17, 2001, at 14:11:48
In reply to AD Insomnia: Xanax or Trazadone?????, posted by Joy on January 16, 2001, at 18:45:41
Hi Joy,
I don't know anything about Trazadone, so I can't speak to that, but I do have experience with Xanax. I was put on it initially as a "bridge medication" to ease the anxiety of starting Paxil. Well, Paxil didn't work out and I went through a series of other meds but the one med that stayed constant was Xanax and before I knew it (five months later), I felt dependent on it. I never took more than .5 mg and usually took .25. I took it every night for one and a half years and then decided to try to stop. To my surprise, I had no problem stopping. Minor withdrawal: increased anxiety, wierd dreams, headaches. Withdrawal ended in less than two weeks. I had worse side effects from Paxil and Serzone than I did from stopping Xanax.
However, I didn't throw the bottle (or the extra prescription) away and I still took the Xanax occassionally (once every couple weeks, like if my girlfriend and I argued or I felt anxious about something). All of a sudden (a month or two ago), .25 didn't do any good anymore and one particularly bad night I think I had to take 1mg to conk myself out. However, this new tolerance might not be addiction (why would that happen now, and not earlier?) as much as the result of my crazy moods recently. Currently, I am taking a higher dose of my mood stabilizer combined with .5 mg Xanax nightly and this combination works great for me. When I feel more stable, I will try to wean myself off the Xanax again, but right now it is a nice reprieve to restless nights.
I guess based on my experience right now, I would say that Xanax is addictive but it won't control you unless you let it and you can always get off (taper!) it if you don't need it anymore. But if its working for you and you are not abusing it (like using it to get high) then there's nothing wrong with that.
There's also nothing wrong with trying a new med, so I like your idea of trying the Trazadone while continuing the Xanax. I'd be interested to know how you like the Trazadone.
> I take 20 mg of Prozac now which works well for depression/irritation, etc. I also take .5 Xanax for the last few months about 30 or 40 minutes before bedtime for insomnia. My pdoc wants me to take Trazadone; he says it's not addicting like Xanax. My fdoc gave me Ambien [5 mg doesn't do it; 10 mg I wake up in 4 hours; I don't like it.]. Also, I understand some prople use a small dose of Remeron. My question: Are docs over-exaggerating addiction of Xanax? What's .5 once at nighttime? Would Trazadone really be better? Remeron? Or should I insist of my Xanax which works very well for me??? Thanks. I'm confused.
> Joy
Posted by Noa on January 18, 2001, at 17:27:40
In reply to Re: AD Insomnia: Xanax or Trazadone?????, posted by Shell on January 16, 2001, at 21:45:27
I don't think you need to wait for the trazodone to kick in if you are using it as a sleep aid--it should work right away. If you are using it as an AD, you would have to wait for results. Usually the dose for sleep is a lot smaller than the dose as an AD.
I may be wrong---Cam???
I think it is hard to say what the risk of addiction is for any single individual, but I do think it is valid to take this into consideration with Xanax.
I used to use Trazodone for sleep. Now I use Serzone, at (AD) therapeutic levels--both for AD and for sleep. I have posted on this many times.
Posted by Noa on January 18, 2001, at 17:30:03
In reply to Re: AD Insomnia: Xanax or Trazadone?????, posted by super on January 17, 2001, at 14:11:48
I have also heard that Periactin helps for sleep, and for nightmares, and also can be helpful for sexual side effects of SSRIs. I have no direct experience of it, though.
Posted by Joy on January 18, 2001, at 21:15:03
In reply to Re: AD Insomnia: Xanax or Trazadone?????, posted by Noa on January 18, 2001, at 17:30:03
Hi Noa,
I'm hesitant about the Trazodone because I know it's related to Serzone; and Serzone gave me the worst insomnia I ever had [to say nothing of the crying jags]. I think I may stay with the Xanax. I appreciate your post. I think the doctors get over-zealous with the 'addiction' thing. There were a few nights I didn't take it with no problem since my doc gave me Ambien which was not good for me at all. Besides, I don't have an 'additive' personality. I've weaned off Paxil twice; what could be worse!!
Joy
> I have also heard that Periactin helps for sleep, and for nightmares, and also can be helpful for sexual side effects of SSRIs. I have no direct experience of it, though.
Posted by saskia on January 20, 2001, at 19:40:27
In reply to Re: AD Insomnia: Xanax or Trazadone????? » Noa, posted by Joy on January 18, 2001, at 21:15:03
> Hi Noa,
> I'm hesitant about the Trazodone because I know it's related to Serzone; and Serzone gave me the worst insomnia I ever had [to say nothing of the crying jags]. I think I may stay with the Xanax. I appreciate your post. I think the doctors get over-zealous with the 'addiction' thing. There were a few nights I didn't take it with no problem since my doc gave me Ambien which was not good for me at all. Besides, I don't have an 'additive' personality. I've weaned off Paxil twice; what could be worse!!
> Joy
>
>
>
>
> > I have also heard that Periactin helps for sleep, and for nightmares, and also can be helpful for sexual side effects of SSRIs. I have no direct experience of it, though.Hi Joy,
I took Trazadone until I could not stand it any more. Initially it helped with sleep but after a couple of weeks, I would wake up after about five hours sleep and feel hyper and weird at the same time.
It also gave me headachesand made be spacey during the day. I hated it. Xanax works much better. It is a cleaner drug. You can actually feel relaxed.
Hope it works out for you,
Saskia
Posted by James24 on August 30, 2005, at 23:39:29
In reply to Re: AD Insomnia: Xanax or Trazadone?????, posted by JohnL on January 17, 2001, at 2:47:17
I would say stay on the Xanax cause it will help you sleep way better than Remeron of Trazodone. The differnce between xanax and trazodone is Xanax is a Benzodiazapam and doctors dont like to give it out because it is addictive if abused and it has a street value in the illegal drug trade of between $1 and $5 per 1 o.5 mg tablet and thats why doctors are reluctant to prescribe them. Also you can develope a tolerance to them and youll eventually need more to help you sleep and to get the same origanal affect. They are supposed to be taken for a short term then tapper off them but ive been on xanax for 6 years now and I take 6 o.5 mg tablets a day now but in your case if you are only takeing it for sleep once a night there good I take mine for panic attacks and sleeping also another good way to help you sleep at night is gravol 50 mg tablets ive talked to doctors and they all said gravol is ok to take for sleeping I take my xanax and gravol and remeron together every night before bed.Trazodone is no good for sleeping at all as far as im concerned they never made me drowsey at all there supposed to be taken every night then after 2 weeks is when there supposed to help you sleep. So if your looking for a med that works and makes you drowsey soon as you take it then xanax is what you need and you can add nyQuil or gravol if you are haveing a harder time than usual falling asleep. As far as remeron goes It will make you drowsey but the side affects in some cases i have seen are bad things like leg spazums hot cold flashes even temorary insomnia but will help you sleep so if you want something non addictive or if you have an addictive personality then id go with remeron over Trazodone ant to avoid any uncomfortable side affects start your remeron at 15 mg vs the 30 mg doctors usually start you on. I started at 30 mg my first time and it made me really drowsey but the side affects were very uncomfortable so I stoped takeing them then 2 weeks later my doctor suggested I try again but a 15 mg and now they do the job. All in all I suggest staying on the Xanax cause it is a Benzo which is like a valume and any sleep aid other than Benzos and Hypnotics and tranqilizers wont come any where near the good affect bezos and hynotics and tranqs. Now that i think of it if you want medication for sleeping only ask your Doctor about a Hypnotic sleep aid drug called Immovane. Other good sleep aids are Adavan,Clonazapam,lorazapam,temazapam,Mogadine is a good strong one and Diazapam Which is basicly another name for Valume if doctor wont give you any of the meds i listed then stay on the xanax cause most doctors dont like to give the out not cause there harmfull which they are not but because they dont trust people with them due to so many drug addicts that doctor shop and they wanna protect their butt from the RCMP cause if they give out to many to to many people they can get in troble. Any way i hope i helped you out if you have any Questions let me know. Good Luck :) Jim
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