Posted by Karen Moore on February 7, 2004, at 14:09:48
In reply to Re: xyrem or depakote for insomnia?, posted by Chairman_MAO on February 6, 2004, at 13:06:52
Chairman (and others, of course!):
Do have any good resources (online or in print) that explore how each of these various sleep drugs effect sleep architecture? Or ongoing systemic changes? For example: alcohol will obviously "put you out" at an appropriately high dose, but I understand it wreaks havoc with diurnal melatonin cycles (among other things). I've been on Seroquel for years, and though it clearly helps me sleep I'm suspicious that it may be changing the structure and patterns, and thus quality of my sleep.Any ideas/resources would be much appreciated!
KM> You will not get Xyrem unless you have a virtual symposium of doctors work on your behalf to get it. Normal pharmacies cannot even dispense it, even though it's only a schedule III controlled substance. The inane war on the constitution, err, I mean war on drugs is in full-force, and the excellent drug GHB (or "sodium oxybate", haha) is one of its casulaties (let's just ignore the fact that you could buy it in GNC in the 80s).
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> There are many options besides GHB that could work for you. A sizeable dose of Seroquel should put you out. There's trazodone, Gabitril, and of course ambien, but I honestly think that's weak compared to some other options.
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> Then there's benzos (and barbiturates, but good luck getting Seconal, you have more of a chance getting GHB), but both build tolerance over time and are not good for sleep architecture. If you can get chloral hydrate, that could work wonders. High doses of Gabitril (or ambien or temazepam) and Seroquel together (assuming your bipolar disorder is somewhat medicated) should knock anyone out.
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> Good luck.
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poster:Karen Moore
thread:310135
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040204/msgs/310559.html