Psycho-Babble Medication Thread 1063794

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Sleep med advice

Posted by vbs on April 7, 2014, at 8:04:17

Current psych meds:

Cymbalta 60 mg
Trazodone 50 mg
BuSpar 15 mg bid
Latuda 40 mg
Invega Sustenna

Anything else that I can take to enhance sleep? Benzos, Ambien & Lunesta are not an option. Maybe add Remeron?

Thanks.

 

Re: Sleep med advice

Posted by Christ_empowered on April 7, 2014, at 8:35:31

In reply to Sleep med advice, posted by vbs on April 7, 2014, at 8:04:17

maybe drop trazadone and go for hydroxyzine, during the day and a higher dose at night?>?

I'm clearly not an MD. Just guessing, that's all.

 

Re: Sleep med advice » Christ_empowered

Posted by Phillipa on April 7, 2014, at 9:52:25

In reply to Re: Sleep med advice, posted by Christ_empowered on April 7, 2014, at 8:35:31

Is hydroxazine atarax? As it caused vomiting in my pup? Phillipa

 

Re: Sleep med advice

Posted by rjlockhart37 on April 7, 2014, at 12:56:52

In reply to Sleep med advice, posted by vbs on April 7, 2014, at 8:04:17

ask your doctor about lyrica, or ambien....of course a glass of wine before bed is ok, but that's not really medical treatment...

there's a medication callled rezerom

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramelteon

it effects serotonin/meletonin receptor making you sleepy....but it's not for anxiety at all, not a sedative....just works om the meletonin release in the synapse....

 

Re: See a sleep medicine specialist????

Posted by LostBoyinNC45 on April 8, 2014, at 21:25:59

In reply to Sleep med advice, posted by vbs on April 7, 2014, at 8:04:17

Instead of seeing a psychiatrist? For sleep, sleep medicine specialists are the ones to go to. Psychiatrists are primarily concerned with your behavior while awake and with your mood, thoughts, feelings, stuff like that. I have never had a psychiatrist who seemed all that concerned by my complaints of poor quality sleep and some will even write in my psychiatric jacket "somatic complaints" if I complain about poor quality sleep a lot.

Sleep medicine specialists who are board certified in sleep medicine will ask about the quality of your sleep, how restorative your sleep is (very important to your daytime mental health and your daytime behavior) and will be concerned about insomnia.

Ive found CPAP helps with insomnia a lot. Its better than any sleep drug. Sleep medicine specialists can also prescribe the same hypnotic insomnia drugs that psychiatrists sometimes prescribe, like ambien and others.

Eric AKA "LostBoyinNC"

 

Re: Sleep med advice

Posted by Louisiana Sportsman on April 9, 2014, at 13:39:02

In reply to Sleep med advice, posted by vbs on April 7, 2014, at 8:04:17

Mirtazapine, as you've mentioned, is an idea. It depends on how well you respond to H1 antagonists such as diphenhydramine or doxylamine succinate. Try chlorpeniramine Maleate if you haven't already, it is an OTC antihistamine too.

I believe if a stronger H1 antagonist is needed then, as a previous poster suggested, hydroxyzine would be a great choice. But, I would think promethazine would be more sedating whereas hydroxyzine is more of an anxiolytic. I think promethazine would be a both more sedating and less side effect prone than Remeron.

I've seen mentions of pregabalin (Lyrica) and that may is somewhat advisable, but I've found it (and its cousin, gabapentin) somewhat activating, but your mileage may vary.

My personal suggestion would be generic Doxepin. They have Silenor that comes in 3mg. and 6mg. tablets for sleep. This is expensive and unnecessary. The suggested dosage for adults is 6mg. The lowest dosage of generic doxepin is 10mg. This is not too far off from the Silenor dosage of 6mg. I mean, if you can afford it-- go for it. They come in capsule form so you can't split them. The promethazine pills, however, are scored so you can break them in half if they're too strong. See if your doctor would write both scripts like:

#30 doxepin 10mg.
#30 promethazine 50mg.

 

Re: Sleep med advice

Posted by Zyprexa on April 9, 2014, at 22:22:22

In reply to Sleep med advice, posted by vbs on April 7, 2014, at 8:04:17

Remeron made me tired as hell. Should work. It's long acting. My sleep med is zyprexa. Both seem to make as tired and hungry. Remeron gave me horable nightmares without the zyprexa.

 

Re: Sleep med advice

Posted by LouisianaSportsman on April 10, 2014, at 1:30:23

In reply to Re: Sleep med advice, posted by Zyprexa on April 9, 2014, at 22:22:22

Question for you:

I've tried Abilify as my first AAP and adored it. Gained weight. Too much... Switched to Latuda. Loved it! Now, I want to switch to back to Abilify and add metformin and increase my topamax from 200mg. to 300mg. and investigate other possibilities.

But, I have such a curious mind. I've always heard Zyprexa is the gold standard of AAPs. Possibly better than Abilify? I'm not going to lie. Part of my my hobby is trying different types of psychiatric meds and I kinda wanna try out olanzapine, but it'd have to be the zydis form. Any truth that it there is less weight gain with it?

 

Re: Sleep med advice

Posted by Zyprexa on April 10, 2014, at 20:33:40

In reply to Re: Sleep med advice, posted by LouisianaSportsman on April 10, 2014, at 1:30:23

I've never tried zydis,but now on generic zyprexa, I find it to have drastically lowered my appetite, compared with brand zyprexa. I take teva,it seems to be lower appetite than aurobindo.

 

Re: Sleep med advice

Posted by phidippus on April 11, 2014, at 13:58:12

In reply to Sleep med advice, posted by vbs on April 7, 2014, at 8:04:17

Try Gabitril, 12 mg. It enhances stage 4 sleep.

Eric

 

Re: Sleep med advice » Phillipa

Posted by tony p on April 29, 2014, at 0:46:15

In reply to Re: Sleep med advice » Christ_empowered, posted by Phillipa on April 7, 2014, at 9:52:25

> Is hydroxazine atarax? As it caused vomiting in my pup? Phillipa
Yes, hydroxyzine = Atarax. Early antihistamine with sedative/anxiolytic properties. I hated it - made me dry-mouthed & dozy without really relieving anxiety or promoting natural sleep.

 

Re: Sleep med advice

Posted by tony p on April 29, 2014, at 1:05:22

In reply to Re: Sleep med advice, posted by LouisianaSportsman on April 10, 2014, at 1:30:23

Cyproheptadine 2 mg (another old antihistamine) worked quite well for me. better than the common off-the-shelf sleep remedies (usually diphenhydramine/Benadryl under a different name). Where I live (BC) it is availabke OTC from the pharmacist without Rx.

Remeron (mirtazapine) is one of the most powerful H1 sleep inducers I have tried, but I have sometimes had a terrible akathisia response (like restless leg, but whole-body); counteracted by Requip (ropinirole), which also has a mild AD enhancing effect.

Do you suffer from not being able to fall asleep or from early-wakening insomnia? For the latter, I highly recommend the little-known TCA Trimipramine, 25-200 mg. It's a mild AD but provides the most natural sleep of anything I've tried - I currently take 50 mg HS. The sleep-inducing effect falls off fairly quickly in daily use but the sleep maintenance effect continues. And I dream good dreams - the only downside is long half-life, sometimes making it hard to wake up.


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