![[dr. bob]](/dr-bob-sm.gif)
Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 10 of 10. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by one_little_victory on February 3, 2003, at 23:25:04
Hello everyone I have not posted in a long time so please bare with me. After coming off Paxil and effexor (seperately) before my doctor has started me on 25 mg of imipramine. (Tofranil?)
after a week or so on it I am finding the vivid dreams bothersome. DO they go away with time? My Doctor also precribed Restoril which is a sleeping pill and works great at relaxing me in the evening with the evening as I suffer mostly from general anxiety as well as bad panic attacks. They of course lead to not going out, fear of answering the phone and that leads to depression because you feel so isolated. My "sort of" girlfriend thinks I am weird for never wanting to go anywhere asnd I am also conscious of having put on an extra 50 pounds over the past few years from Effexor and Paxil but with some exercise and a new medication my doctor told me I may likely lose some weight. I am a tall and big-boned guy too which helps but nobody feels good going in public feeling quite overweight.I was on effexor and paxil (seperately) each for over a 6 year period and i have tried all sorts of the ssri drugs and even zyprexa with clonazepam and ativan. from all of the literature I have read on anxiety and panic many say the benzodiazepines and maoi and tricyclic antidepressant are the best and that the ssri med are way over hyped and can make many with mostly anxiety and panic worse.
Te One thing I wonder is if I increase the Imipramine dose will the weird dreams go away? If anyone has any experience with this, could you please let me know? TIA..
Marc
Posted by babs on February 4, 2003, at 6:49:18
In reply to Doctor just precribed Imipramine. help please, posted by one_little_victory on February 3, 2003, at 23:25:04
Imipramine worked so well for me. I was on it for eleven years because I had depression and horrible panic attacks. Imipramine helped so much with anxiety! The vivid dreams are common when starting a med but usually go away with time. Hnag in there. If imipramine works as well for you as it did for me, you will feel much better!
Posted by Eddie Sylvano on February 4, 2003, at 10:00:11
In reply to Doctor just precribed Imipramine. help please, posted by one_little_victory on February 3, 2003, at 23:25:04
>25 mg of imipramine. (Tofranil?)
> after a week or so on it I am finding the vivid dreams bothersome. DO they go away with time?
----------------25mg isn't very much, so if you're still titrating up on the dosage, you'll likely see no change until you reach your loading dosage, and stay there for a bit. I never had vivid dreams when starting it, but the bothersome side effects I did notice went away after a couple of weeks.
Posted by Alan on February 4, 2003, at 11:41:14
In reply to Doctor just precribed Imipramine. help please, posted by one_little_victory on February 3, 2003, at 23:25:04
> Hello everyone I have not posted in a long time so please bare with me. After coming off Paxil and effexor (seperately) before my doctor has started me on 25 mg of imipramine. (Tofranil?)
> after a week or so on it I am finding the vivid dreams bothersome. DO they go away with time? My Doctor also precribed Restoril which is a sleeping pill and works great at relaxing me in the evening with the evening as I suffer mostly from general anxiety as well as bad panic attacks. They of course lead to not going out, fear of answering the phone and that leads to depression because you feel so isolated. My "sort of" girlfriend thinks I am weird for never wanting to go anywhere asnd I am also conscious of having put on an extra 50 pounds over the past few years from Effexor and Paxil but with some exercise and a new medication my doctor told me I may likely lose some weight. I am a tall and big-boned guy too which helps but nobody feels good going in public feeling quite overweight.
>
> I was on effexor and paxil (seperately) each for over a 6 year period and i have tried all sorts of the ssri drugs and even zyprexa with clonazepam and ativan. from all of the literature I have read on anxiety and panic many say the benzodiazepines and maoi and tricyclic antidepressant are the best and that the ssri med are way over hyped and can make many with mostly anxiety and panic worse.
>
> Te One thing I wonder is if I increase the Imipramine dose will the weird dreams go away? If anyone has any experience with this, could you please let me know? TIA..
>
> Marc
>
>
===============================================Not to put doubts in your mind about your course of treatment, and I can't address the vivd dreaming, but I am curious as to whether you tried any of the bzds in MONOtherapy and at sufficient enough doses over a period of over 2 - 3 weeks....
Just curious.
Alan
Posted by BrittPark on February 4, 2003, at 11:56:16
In reply to Doctor just precribed Imipramine. help please, posted by one_little_victory on February 3, 2003, at 23:25:04
I've been on imipramine for nigh on 20 years, with a few vacations. Whenever I have started it I've had mostly anticholinergic side effects, dry mouth, sedation. I only had vivid dreams when I first started taking it. I attributed that to my stopping drinking at the time.
The side effects will mostly go away so that all you're likely to notice is a bit of dry mouth (brush and floss religiously) and perhaps some postural hypotention.
Imipramine has been a life saver for me. I hope it works well for you.
Britt
Posted by one_little_victory on February 5, 2003, at 0:06:10
In reply to Doctor just precribed Imipramine. help please, posted by one_little_victory on February 3, 2003, at 23:25:04
I have stopped imipramine. Thank you everyone for your replies. I spent most of day crying and scared from dreams once agin. Its no good and now i am I even scared to sleep. The best was Effexor bec ause I had almost no dreams. I watched a movie last night, City of Angels, and dreamed my girlfriend died. I don't care about any side effects but I will not tolerate that kind of nightmare from imipramine. It was just too real.Oh ya, I did try using just benzodiazepine many times but it doesn't help my depression. (Even though it is just a small bit of my problems.)
So I will try high dose benzodiazepine with left over Paxil until I can find better. Paxil was closest like Effexor for me.
Anybody else have problems with nightmares just like in general?
Posted by stjames on February 5, 2003, at 17:53:23
In reply to Can't stand nightmares vivid dreams..stopped Imipr, posted by one_little_victory on February 5, 2003, at 0:06:10
> Anybody else have problems with nightmares just like in general?
Since I was willing to stay on imipramine
and wait out the side effects, the dreams stopped after 2 weeks. Do remember that every AD has side effects at first.
Posted by Questionmark on February 6, 2003, at 1:07:14
In reply to Can't stand nightmares vivid dreams..stopped Imipr, posted by one_little_victory on February 5, 2003, at 0:06:10
The nightmares may easily be due more to the SSRI withdrawal than the imipramine. i would try to figure that out before you give up imipramine and go back to an SSRI. If it is mostly withdrawal symptoms, it might be a good idea to taper down the SSRI as you build up the imipramine. But i dunno.
Posted by one_little_victory on February 6, 2003, at 3:48:33
In reply to Re: Can't stand nightmares vivid dreams..stopped Imipr, posted by stjames on February 5, 2003, at 17:53:23
> > Anybody else have problems with nightmares just like in general?
>
> Since I was willing to stay on imipramine
> and wait out the side effects, the dreams stopped after 2 weeks. Do remember that every AD has side effects at first.
>
>
>Yep I know but I do now know it was the imipramine, because the bad dreams only happen when I take it. I now know this is imipramine-related, because I was on desipramine for a number of months years ago and had the same problems, and it just got worse. I was up to 250mg of desipramine. My doctor said imipramine turns into desipramine in the body, and he said some people are just really sensitive to some medications that affect sleep a certain way.
It's not ssri withdrawl because I went a long period without Paxil or even effexor and didn't have this. Only the exact day I started imipramine. When I stopped it, they went away.
Like all, it works for some and not for others. I am glad it worked for you. Thank you.
Marc
Posted by one_little_victory on February 6, 2003, at 3:54:15
In reply to Re: Can't stand nightmares vivid dreams..stopped Imipr, posted by Questionmark on February 6, 2003, at 1:07:14
> The nightmares may easily be due more to the SSRI withdrawal than the imipramine. i would try to figure that out before you give up imipramine and go back to an SSRI. If it is mostly withdrawal symptoms, it might be a good idea to taper down the SSRI as you build up the imipramine. But i dunno.
Thank you for the reply. If you read my above posting for stjames, it explains how I figured it was the imipramine causing sleep disturbnace. Actually my doctor did, as I had a past similar reaction to the drug imipramine turns into the body which is called desipramine. No imipramine equals no problems with nightmare, regardless of taking or not of a ssri.
Thank you for your reply and suggestion. Marc
This is the end of the thread.
Psycho-Babble Medication | Extras | FAQ
Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.org
Script revised: February 4, 2008
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/cgi-bin/pb/mget.pl
Copyright 2006-17 Robert Hsiung.
Owned and operated by Dr. Bob LLC and not the University of Chicago.