Posted by Elizabeth on June 4, 2001, at 23:28:09
In reply to Re: Trazodone-Elizabeth, posted by Thrud on June 4, 2001, at 18:40:46
> > Trazodone has been known to cause nightmares as a side effect.
>
> great! :(Sorry...just the messenger. :-}
A lot of people have vivid dreams on SSRIs. SSRIs do suppress REM sleep but that just means there's a decrease in the amount of time you spend in REM sleep -- not that it's abolished altogether. They increase the *density* of REMs -- the average number of eye movements per unit time during the REM phase of sleep -- and this seems to result in intense dreams and vivid dream recall for some people. It's probably underreported as a side effect because people often experience the dreams as pleasant or interesting.
I had a weird reaction to antipsychotics (Risperdal and amoxapine in particular): a type of "anxiety dream" with associated abnormal movements. I have REM sleep behaviour disorder (or a variant thereof), in which muscle tone is maintained during REM sleep (this is abnormal), so that I act out my dreams physically. This mainly happens with this particular type of "anxiety dream." For some reason, the neuroleptics triggered episodes of this. (I gather that RBD is usually a nightly thing; for me it's less regular, although still frequent. My case is generally unusual in that RBD primarily is seen in men over the age of 50 with neurological disorders; I'm a healthy woman in my mid 20s.) Also, this was while I was on MAOIs -- very powerful REM suppressors (and hence excellent antinarcoleptic drugs, and also effective in treating RBD). So the neuroleptics actually triggered a relapse of a condition that was being treated.
(TCAs other than amoxapine have not caused this reaction.)
> > Have you tried MAOIs or TCAs?
> >
> Yes to TCAs. I found them just as bad, if not worse than SSRIs for vivid dreams.> No to MAOIs...I refuse to give up alcohol!
You don't have to, except for tap beer. I just posted something about this:
http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010530/msgs/64979.html
I drank moderate amounts of alcohol a number of times while on Nardil, Parnate, and Marplan, and I know that many people "cheat" on this one with no trouble at all. I never had a problem with it once, although I seem to be hypersensitive to MAOI-associated hypertensive reactions (having had spontaneous reactions on Parnate). There has never been a well documented report of an interaction with alcoholic beverages other than tap beer and certain foreign (for me, that's non-US/Canada) bottled beers. Old, inaccurate methods that have since been debunnked once revealed high levels of tyramine in Chianti, and everyone freaked because there was little knowledge about MAOI interactions at the time. We're still learning, but it's safe to say you can drink moderate amounts without trouble as long as you stay away from tap beer (and obscure foreign beers).
> In some ways I seem to have quite an atypical response to ADs. Dang.
Atypical how?
-elizabeth
poster:Elizabeth
thread:65315
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010530/msgs/65433.html