Posted by drbill on February 27, 2005, at 12:11:50
In reply to SSRI and tiredness, posted by krybrahaha78 on February 26, 2005, at 1:38:10
Yes, most of them make me sleepy all day long. Never tried Paxil, but Zoloft and Prozac both made me sleepy, Lexapro too at 20 mg. Effexor and Lexapro 10 mg were less sedating. I'm currently trying Cymbalta and have high hopes that it will not be sedating due to its norepinephrine effects and because it "shows minimal affinity for the histamine and cholinergic muscarinic receptors," which I think are the ones that make you sleepy(?).
I pulled together the info on somnolence from the prescribing information for different drugs. My experience hasn't exactly followed the statistics, but it's not too far off. I combined the data for depression and anxiety trials, where available (ie for Lexapro, somnolence was 6% for depression, 12% for anxiety, for an average of 9%). The first number is % of somnolence and the second, in brackets, is abnormal ejaculation, also a major problem with these drugs.
Ranked from least to most sedating:
Wellbutrin 2% [none?]
Cymbalta 7% [3%]
Lexapro 9% [12%]
Prozac 12% [no good data]
Zoloft 13% [14%]
Effexor XR 15.5% [14%]
Luvox 23% [8%]
Paxil CR 23% [13%]
poster:drbill
thread:463606
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050227/msgs/464056.html