Posted by jrbecker on October 22, 2003, at 1:27:29
In reply to Agitated depression; anxiety bad in morning, posted by dannen on October 21, 2003, at 21:32:22
sounds like you're a typical melancholic-type depressive. even though I am an atypical depressive -- who's best sleeping hours are usually early morning -- I do sometimes exhibit early morning awakenings. I attribute this as partly due to the "condition" and partly the meds themselves (most ADs cause some sort of circadian phase shift). In terms of the SSRIs/SNRIs, I found that in the long-term run, effexor was really good at keeping me asleep through the night. However, you have to wait at least 1-2 months before your sleep is stabilized. There is definitely an adjustment period to these side effects, but once you're over that hump, sleep normalizes. Second to that was celexa - which did cause some early morning awakening issues once and a while, but not as bad as my trials with zoloft, prozac or lexapro.
I don't know if you're considering Serzone as an option, but it will definitely solve your early morning awakening problem. Of course, it comes with other tradeoffs.
What experience do you have with benzo's? A very low dose of Klonopin or Xanax XR, in combo with Ambien gets me an extremely efficient night's rest with no grogginess the next day. You might want to explore this strategy with your doc.
> I have been diagnosed with agitated depression. I have very bad anxiety in the morning. I wake up at about 5 am, with waves of anxiety. The anxiety is bad until about 8 am, and then it gets better through the morning and usually is gone by noon. Nights are fine. Then the cycle begins all over again.
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> Does anyone else have this? What medication has helped? Nothing has worked for me yet. (Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, Lexapro all caused great agitation.) Help.
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> Dannen
poster:jrbecker
thread:271647
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20031021/msgs/271719.html