Posted by mattdds on October 4, 2003, at 12:06:14
In reply to Thanks, posted by Budgie on October 4, 2003, at 9:44:53
Chris,
The article Viridis posted was really cool, I thought. It seemed overwhelmingly positive about the new hypnotics. I didn't really see too much disagreement. There seemed to be a general agreement on the fact that there is *much* less, if any rebound insomnia with zolpidem. And if there was, that it was transient (I think it showed 24 hours on the EEG) and mild.
This is consistent with my experience. I just got my Ambien refilled today (even though it was a little early, and the pharm tech hassled me about it), but there was a period where I stopped cold turkey for 3-4 days! I had no problem other than the same old insomnia that has plagued me my whole life, but no worse, or no better. No strange symptoms appeared, and I didn't have a seizure.
My dad says the same thing, he'll take it for a while (a month or two), then his doc will get uptight about it, saying "this is really only supposed to be for 7-10 days". So my dad will go off "cold turkey". He has no "withdrawal", just the return of his original lack of ability to fall asleep!
It's really annoying for people who think they know better to arbitrarily place a limit on how long (a mere 7-10 days, in this case) you can get relief from insomnia, especially when it continues to work for me after 2 years of nearly continuous use! On the other hand my mom gets 5 refills from an extremely conservative family MD on her trazodone which she uses nightly. As if they were candy or something.
To me, zolpidem is much more well studied in the context of sleep, so why in the heck prescribe something that is off-label like trazodone, amitriptyline. Doesn't make sense to me. I'ts only because Ambien is scheduled.
One question, perhaps the most important one. Is it working for you? Do you still feel hung-over? You mentioned you had a cold and perhaps this is obscuring the effects. For most (but obviously not all), this is the main advantage of Ambien - no hangover. YMMV, as they say in this weird little world.
Matt
poster:mattdds
thread:264925
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20031004/msgs/265518.html