Posted by King Vultan on November 30, 2004, at 16:41:47
In reply to Sleep Meds and Ins. formularies Recommendations?, posted by simcha on November 29, 2004, at 21:13:17
I have very bad insomnia from Parnate and have had to do a lot of work to find a med or combination thereof that can be used for chronic insomnia. I take 0.25 mg triazolam (Halcion) every other night, which is also only a $10 copay on my insurance, and the other night, I take 25 mg Benadryl + 5 mg Ambien. The Ambien is a $50 copay on my insurance for 30 x 10 mg, so at the rate I use it, it is only $12.50/month. I tried 10 mg Ambien by itself and found it nearly worthless in this case; although, it has worked for most of the other insomnia-inducing antidepressants I've taken. You can also try 25 or 50 mg Benadryl (or some other product that is pure diphenhydramine) by itself; this is not as clean a drug as triazolam or Ambien but is obviously very cheap and easy to try. I find 50 mg Benadryl to be more powerful than 10 mg Ambien for my Parnate insomnia.
The triazolam is a more powerful sleep aid than Ambien IMO, but it does have more of a tendency to cause tolerance than Ambien if a person takes it every single night. Triazolam also has a relatively short half life (3.5 hour mean) not that much different from that of Ambien (2.6 hour mean), and I haven't ever noticed any hangover effects from it. Triazolam has garnered a fair amount of bad press in regard to some negative psychological issues, but they are more prevalent in the elderly and/or at higher doses (the maximum dose was reduced to 0.25 mg some years ago, and the 0.5 mg pill is no longer even made). When I was on the other MAOI, Nardil, I only needed half of a 0.25 mg pill, which I felt was still more powerful than 5 mg Ambien; I can't remember if I tried 10 mg Ambien in that situation.
Todd
poster:King Vultan
thread:422047
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20041128/msgs/422486.html