Posted by fachad on April 30, 2002, at 11:26:55
In reply to Ambien and other chimera, posted by paxvox2000 on April 29, 2002, at 20:04:39
I've been exploring that same problem over the past few months. First, although YMMV, let me tell you that some people say that Ambien is less likely to promote dependence, for me that was not true. Ambien was never reinforcing, but when I stopped I could not go to sleep without it.
When I started Ambien, I had a sleep maintenance problem but my sleep onset was fine. When I stopped Ambien, I had both sleep onset and sleep maintenance problems.
I tried Restoral (temazepam); at 30 mg a day it was not effective at all. Then I tried Ativan (lorazepam) and at 2 mg it was moderately effective, but not as good as Ambien at putting me to sleep.
So now I take 5 or 10 mg Ambien and 1 or 2 mg of Ativan and that works pretty good.
I also tried Remeron and Surmontil (trimipramine), and each of them alone worked better than the Ambien/Ativan combo, but I am very susceptible to drug induced weight gain, and both of these drugs made me gain weight very quickly.
So I'm back to the Ambien/Ativan combo for now.
I personally think it makes sense because you use Ambien to get to sleep and a longer acting hypnotic to stay asleep. The other alternative is to use a high dose long acting drug for both, and that is going to cause more problems with next day grogginess, and with long term use at a higher dose, dependence and withdrawal issues.
> OK, here's the deal. I can't get to sleep at night, even with Tranzene, Have run the board on "mood stabilizers" from my Pdoc, but HATED them all (except Trazodone, however that exacerabted a urinary problem I have). Soooooo... I have gotten back on Ambien from my GP (he knows the other meds I am taking from Pdoc).
>
> Problem: because of the very short half-life of Ambien (Sonata also) I can GET to sleep, but wake up about 4 hours later, and then wake, sleep on about a one hour cycle the rest of the night. I have tried splitting the Ambien dose, and tried adding another 5mg the first time I wake up (this has been on my own, w/o doc's knowledge). But I can't continue to up the dose w/o letting him know about it.
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> Question: Who else has this kind of problem with Ambien or Sonata? What have you done about it? I had taken Ambien before for several years when I had a different sleep schedule (I could stay in bed much later)w/o this having been a real problem. However, I wonder; is it better to get that 4 hours sleep, then struggle the rest of the night, or should I back off the Ambien, and try something else? If anyone says the latter, what else would you suggest I ask about? My Pdoc, as I have said, has tried at least 4 -5 other meds to help me sleep. Most I REALLY did not like: Neurontin, Depakote (UGGGHHHH!!!!) Topamax, Trazodone (as I mentioned was OK except for the urinary problem).
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> I really don't know what to do about this. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
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> Thanks!
>
> PAX
poster:fachad
thread:104454
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020425/msgs/104506.html