Posted by Rick on January 24, 2002, at 21:15:19
Until recently, I only took Provigil soley in combo with Serzone and Klonopin. And my blood pressure was fine...if anything, it dropped a bit. That didn't surprise me, because one advantage of Provigil over traditional stims was supposed to be that it didn't raise BP or heart rate.
That combo is fantastic for my social phobia, but I've been going without Serzone for awhile to see if I can ditch the annoying memory lapses. (I know Klonopin can be amnesic, but I'm on a low dose and had little in the way of memory problems when I was taking Klonopin alone.)
While I've had only modest deterioration in teatment effectiveness, I've been surprised to find that without the Serzone, Provigil clearly raises my BP and heart rate, and also results in much more variation than before. Whereas I'd have a typical 105-120/65-80 in late afternoon, it now routinely gets as high as 150/100. And this is at a relatively low 100 mg. of Provigil. When I've tried 200 mg, which again never affected my BP while I was also taking Serzone, I've gone as high as 160/105.
First-thing-in-the-morning readings are still pretty good. And I know that a person's BP typically rises until about 2 pm, but mine just keeps rising into the evening, and it's too much of a rise.
Any ideas or similar experiences? I'd surmise my reaction probably isn't typical; my BP tends to be very med sensitive in both directions (although Klonopin has no effect). Maybe it's just that the Serzone was lowering it a lot, offsetting a Provigil-induced rise...i.e., maybe I would be hypotensive on Klonopin and Serzone alone. Or was some sort of interaction involved? (Serzone's a powerful inhibitor of liver enzyme CYP3A4, which Provigil uses for clearance, but I don't see how that could attenuate Provigil's BP effect.)
poster:Rick
thread:91475
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020124/msgs/91475.html