![[dr. bob]](/dr-bob-sm.gif)
Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 6 of 6. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by bonbon on September 13, 2008, at 23:31:22
I haven't posted in ages, but I just wanted to let you know that the sleep deprivation caused by Emsam is so extreme that I'm giving up the Emsam.
My p/doc is NOT happy with this decision and is, so far, not prescribing anything else. She thinks that feeling less depressed is worth the trade-off of barely sleeping. It's not. Sleep deprivation is even more debilitating than depression right now. At least when I'm depressed I can drive without fear of falling asleep!
Anyway, I'm now putting on a patch about every 5 days when I just can't go on, but that's it.
I see the doc on Tuesday and need to get an AD of some sort. I've tried them all, I think.
I'm on klonopin and won't be stopping that.
Sorry for the rambling post. Any suggestions?
Posted by Nadezda on September 14, 2008, at 12:58:53
In reply to Giving up EMSAM due to sleep deprivation, posted by bonbon on September 13, 2008, at 23:31:22
What if anything, other than klonopin, did you try to help you sleep?
Nadezda
Posted by bonbon on September 14, 2008, at 13:15:53
In reply to Re: Giving up EMSAM due to sleep deprivation » bonbon, posted by Nadezda on September 14, 2008, at 12:58:53
I've been on the klonopin for many years for a partial-complex seizure disorder. I've been on it through all the ADs, etc. For the sleep problem I've been on the usual - Ambien, Lunesta.
Tried Seroquel(made me waaaay too spacey, couldn't wake up functionally).
Posted by desolationrower on September 15, 2008, at 21:50:21
In reply to Re: Giving up EMSAM due to sleep deprivation, posted by bonbon on September 14, 2008, at 13:15:53
Did you try something with a shorter half life? periactin is a good drug for that.
I'm also interested in drugs that affect adrenoceptors and their effect as hypnotics. Alpha blockers could be useful here. I believe they might be responsible (along with antihistamine properties) for the excellent sedative properties of quetiapine, trazodone, trimipramine, etc. I do not know what a good short-halflife selective a1 antagonist would be? I'm not sure if a2 agonists would be safe with maois, but they can be somnolence-inducing too.
Finding a antidepressant that works can be difficult. I think you have some options yet to make selegine work.
-D/R
Posted by kirj on September 21, 2008, at 12:42:07
In reply to Giving up EMSAM due to sleep deprivation, posted by bonbon on September 13, 2008, at 23:31:22
I had sleep problems on EMSAM (to the point where I was wondering how long you could go on 2 hrs of sleep a night before your organs start shutting down) and went through trazodone (allergic reaction), neurontin (no effect), ativan (severe depression) and lunesta (delayed effect), until my P-doc put me on restoril (knocks me out at night without completely negating the antidepressant effect of EMSAM the next day). It's not perfect. If I leave the patch on too late I get hyper at night and knocked out the next day at 3 pm. It's harder to get up in the morning, I've found the level of caffeine in green tea to be a good boost. I don't know what's right for your body, but if EMSAM has worked well for your depression, my experience has been that it's worth struggling through to find the right sleep aid. Hope you get some good rest soon.
Posted by bonbon on September 21, 2008, at 15:25:17
In reply to Re: Giving up EMSAM due to sleep deprivation, posted by kirj on September 21, 2008, at 12:42:07
> I had sleep problems on EMSAM (to the point where I was wondering how long you could go on 2 hrs of sleep a night before your organs start shutting down) and went through trazodone (allergic reaction), neurontin (no effect), ativan (severe depression) and lunesta (delayed effect), until my P-doc put me on restoril (knocks me out at night without completely negating the antidepressant effect of EMSAM the next day). It's not perfect. If I leave the patch on too late I get hyper at night and knocked out the next day at 3 pm. It's harder to get up in the morning, I've found the level of caffeine in green tea to be a good boost. I don't know what's right for your body, but if EMSAM has worked well for your depression, my experience has been that it's worth struggling through to find the right sleep aid. Hope you get some good rest soon.
Exactly - I wondered the same thing. How long CAN you keep going on 2 hours sleep. But I've made my decision to give up the EMSAM - partially because I was also diagnosed with sleep apnea and am going to part 2 of my sleep study for that and will get the CPAP machine. At least that's a curable problem. I did quite well on tri-cyclic AD meds up until a few years ago, and I really think that the root problem is the sleep apnea. Once that is dealt with I beleive that I can do okay on lesser drugs than EMSAM.
Thanks for your help!
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.