Posted by jamie on December 12, 1999, at 14:09:08
In reply to INSOMNIA, posted by Joanne on December 12, 1999, at 9:19:34
> Hello everyone,
> I've only just discovered this site yesterday, and I'd first like to thank Dr. Bob and everyone out there who visits/contributes to this site. Depression is a very lonely illness, and in spite of some progress, there is still a major stigma attached to it. I've been on various anti-depressants for three years now (they have saved my life!), and I'm currently taking Wellbutrin. Although it was working well for me for several months with no major side effects, just recently I've had terrible insomnia. This has lasted almost three weeks. It's 7:15am, and I still haven't slept since the night before. I'm wide awake as I type this. On other nights, I fall asleep and then wake up 2-3 hours later and am unable to go back to sleep. I'm deliriously tired, lightheaded, eyes burning, the whole bit..all day, exhausted physically but unable to sleep. I take Ambien, which worked great in the beginning, but now they only work once in awhile, and I still wake up 3 hours later. I've tried taking an Ativan in addition to the Ambien out of desparation, and sometimes it works, but then I sleep 10-11+ hours a day. (I work evenings, by the way) Is there an alternative to Ambien that anyone knows of? I love the Ambien because it leaves your system after 7 hA lot of people take a small dose 25mg or 50mg trazodone. But I hate that drug. Headaches. Horrible nightmares. The best I've ever had for sleep is 7 1/2mg or 15mg of Remeron. It will knock you out within an hour of dosing, have a slight hangover feeling upon waking that goes away in about 30 minutes, and no daytime sedation after a couple of weeks getting used to it. You'll sleep all night. No sexual side effects. It does commonly cause weight gain, but that backs off in time and will probably be counteracted by the wellbutrin anyway. Not much of a problem at such a low dose. I only gained 3 pounds on Remeron, which I later lost without trying. Remeron in my experience is an antidepressant with excellent sleep characteristics and may help the wellbutrin work better than it does alone. Another option would be a small dose of a sedating tricyclic like amitriptyline or imipramine. It just makes sense to me that if we are going to add a drug for sleep, it might as well be another antidepressant. jamie
poster:jamie
thread:16735
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/19991212/msgs/16770.html