Posted by King Vultan on June 28, 2004, at 7:45:30
In reply to list of meds tried, posted by thinkfast on June 28, 2004, at 5:55:02
One that might be worth trying is nortriptyline; this is a moderately sedating norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor that will help with sleep. It is an inexpensive tricyclic AD that has been around for about 40 years. I actually found the tricyclics to be better for my social phobia than the SSRIs. Nortriptyline is also relatively effective for anxiety in general.
My favorite tricyclic was desipramine, as this was much more activating than nortriptyline. However, it did have more of a tendency to increase my overall anxiety levels, while still relatively effective for my social phobia. It caused me moderate insomnia that became less of a problem as time went on. It is also inexpensive, but not quite as ridiculously cheap as nortriptyline.
The MAOIs are very good for social anxiety, particularly Nardil, and are extremely effective antidepressants. Parnate is the more activating of the two and has fewer overall side effects. Both of these have the potential to cause severe insomnia. Of course, they both have dietary and OTC drug restrictions, so they are more of a nuisance to take than a typical AD.
Have you tried Benadryl (the plain allergy only version) for sleep? I use 50 mg every other night for my MAOI insomnia and find it works reasonably well. The other night I use Halcion, a high powered benzodiazepine sleep aid that it sounds like you might have trouble getting a prescription from your doctor for; although, it is only Schedule IV, while Ritalin is Schedule II. Ask her about Ambien--if she is unwilling to prescribe this fairly innocuous Schedule IV sleep aid, you might want to try finding someone else if this is possible.
Todd
poster:King Vultan
thread:361225
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040627/msgs/361243.html