Posted by King Vultan on November 12, 2004, at 8:07:46
In reply to Re: help- sleeping meds » King Vultan, posted by KaraS on November 11, 2004, at 23:06:25
> Todd,
>
> Weren't you trying hydroxyzine for sleep? Did that not work out? Also, what exactly is chloral hydrate? If it's so powerful for insomnia, why isn't it used more? I read one post here that called it a last resort. Why is that?
>
> Thanks,
> Kara
>I did try the hydroxyzine at 25 mg (which did almost nothing), then at 50 mg, then at 100 mg, and the more I tried, the more it kept me awake. Perhaps it's a paradoxical reaction, but I get the impression that the stuff is not the world's greatest sleeping aid. I found it inferior to 50 mg of Benadryl; however, the Benadryl does seem to be more anticholinergic.
Chloral hydrate was one of the first hypnotic agents invented, and I believe it was developed around 1868. It is extremely powerful but has significant abuse and dependency issues and is a Schedule IV controlled substance. I believe chloral hydrate + alcohol is a Mickey Finn (sp). My pdoc says that at his facility, they prescribe chloral hydrate only for people who have the very, very worst insomnia and basically can't sleep at all. He was concerned that I would not be able to wake up at the proper time because of the fairly long half life of the stuff. Personally, I am actually less concerned about that than what I've read about chloral hydrate causing cancer in mice. However, I have not really researched the topic thoroughly.
Todd
poster:King Vultan
thread:414713
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20041108/msgs/414935.html