Posted by Elizabeth on June 27, 2001, at 11:49:34
In reply to Re: Remeron vs Ambien ...i have both, try which first?, posted by Ted on June 26, 2001, at 10:13:13
> I asked my pdoc and he refused remeron *unless I really wanted to try it*. He said *every* patient he has had on it gained *lots* of weight.
I didn't gain any weight on Remeron. I started at 30 mg; my pdoc says the sedation definitely goes away at higher doses, and the weight gain may also.
> He continues to write scripts for ambien, which I take nightly at low dose (3-5 mg; I break the tablets).
It comes in 5 mg tabs, you know. (I've taken 20 mg nightly for long periods of time -- the longest stretch was something like 18 months -- with no loss of effect and no rebound insomnia on discontinuing it.)
> I really like the ambien -- practically no side effects. It is supposedly non-addictive, but I agree with another poster -- being related to the benzodiazepines, it is probably at least weakly addictive. Just keep the dose as low as possible and skip taking it on an occasional night.
I find it works better if I take it every night, actually.
There have been a few cases of dependence, and it certainly has potential for abuse (I've heard a lot of people say it is a better high than the benzos, although I think that its memory-impairing effects make it really impractical as a recreational drug), but dependence is the exception, not the rule.
Ambien is a more specific-acting benzo receptor agonist (but not chemically a benzodiazepine), but surprisingly, it seems to work a lot better than the benzos. Now if only there were a longer-acting drug of the same class -- then I'd be guaranteed a lifetime of good sleep every night! < g >
-elizabeth
poster:Elizabeth
thread:67237
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010625/msgs/68083.html