Posted by jerrympls on October 2, 2003, at 20:52:51
In reply to Re: Ambien- dependency potential?, posted by utopizen on October 2, 2003, at 13:45:12
GOD- Psych docs afraid of prescribing a med for something that it was MADE to do. Ambien is a perfect sleep aid - and it rarely causes dependence. I've been on it for 3 years - 20mg at night. The clinical trials said that 10-20mgs were the best - but for some reason it's prescribed in 5mg and 10mg. I don't get it - ? Also, recenlty (within the last year) a major study showed that Ambien was the best med for insomnia due to antdepressant-caused sleeplessness. The 7-10 day thing is bull. I occassionally have developed a tolerance to it - maybe for a couple weeks or so - but it always comes back and helps me sleep. Problem with it is that it doesn't really help KEEP you to sleep. Only a 4 hour half-life. Sonata - a related sleep med - has only a 1-hour half-life. Sonata did NOTHING for me.
Get a new p-doc. I'm SO sick of scaredy-cat docs all worried about addiction and dependency and over-prescribing. HELL - you have insommnia from parnate - which is WELL known to happen. Problem with MAOI's is you can't mix them with sedating Trcyclics or many other meds. Ambien is a perfect fit. Tell your doc to throw away his PDA and look up the word "compassion." UGH.
Hope you get some sleep.
Jerry
poster:jerrympls
thread:264925
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030928/msgs/265066.html