Posted by blueberry1 on January 9, 2007, at 15:58:46
In reply to EMSAM Day 6 ... and many questions, posted by UgottaHaveHope on January 9, 2007, at 10:26:47
Since ensam increases circulating levels of dopamine, norepinephrine, and phenlethylamine, it is no wonder sleep is a problem. I can relate. So you don't feel alone in that, there are millions of people including millions of perfectly healthy people who have trouble with sleep. After being on zyprexa for 10 years and now off it, I know what disturbed sleep is and it sucks.
Amisulpride works by increasing dopamine function but has more antianxiety to it than ssris are known for. When I tried DL-phenylalanine it felt calming (until it wore off and then I got anxiety and insomnia). When they prescribe stimulants people often feel calmed on them. On all these exampls, go figure. I think increasing dopamine and norepinephrine function obviously does have the potential to treat anxiety, but it also has the potential to make it worse. I believe it is an individual thing that varies considerably from person to person dependidng on unique brain chemistry and genes.
I have my fingers crossed for ensam to help you.
By the way, I do not like the idea of increasing seroquel. Actually I don't like the idea of antipsychotics at all, especially if it is mainly for sleep. That's too much messing around with the dopamine system and setting you up to add a list of other problems to your current ones down the road. I would explore every other possible option on the planet before resorting to increasing an antipsychotic dose. Sure the docs hand them out like candy and the general consensus is they are safe. They are not. I don't want to spend a lot of time backing this strong opinion up with research and links and stuff, but just wanted to throw it out there to consider. My hunch is that in 20 years they are going to look back on the zyprexa/seroquel era and realize those drugs were not nearly as safe as once thought. There are going to be all kinds of people walking around with Parkinson's symptoms, heart diseases, movement disorders, twitches and jitters, diabetes/blood sugar diseases, flat emotions, permanent insomnia, and who knows what other hormonal or metabolic stuff. And of course they'll just say that was part of the natural aging process and had nothing to do with the drugs. Of them all I think Abilify is probably the safest. Don't know how it is for sleep though.
poster:blueberry1
thread:720738
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070107/msgs/720837.html