Posted by temoigneur on December 19, 2005, at 22:53:25
In reply to Abilify (apriprazole) and insomnia, posted by miss volare on December 19, 2005, at 10:54:26
> I just can't get more than 1.5-2 hrs of sleep at a time--then i'm awake and restless. I've been on 10 mg/d. What alternatives might work besides the diphenhydramine i've been taking?
Hi, I've had really bad insomnia, where I stare at the wall till 5 AM and feel that only a lead mallet would bring sleep.. For me Remeron is extremely sedating. I had a benzo addiction as well, I'll post an article about sleep meds..
Unfortunately all the hypnotics that worked well for me when the Antidepressants were working are benzo related/based.. I'm not a chemist, so I don't know about interactions but I'd try remeron if your doctor okays it.
Important to take probably no more than fifteen milligrams, as it looses it's sedating properties as you raise the dose above that, for some. Here's the article on sleep meds.. I really want to try abilify too, so I'll be interested to see if you can sleep:)
"All the typically used sleep meds such as Lunesta, Ambien, Ambien CR, Sonata, Hacion, Klonopin, Restoril are all variants on the benzodiazepine mechanism. They all attach to one or more of the Benzodiazepine sites on the GABA receptors in the sleep areas of your brain. Because they vary somewhat in which site subtypes they attach to and where those type are located in the brain, there are variations on how they effect anxiety, sleep, seizures etc... That being said, the adaption process by which you become tolerant and they cease to work without increasing the dose is the same. That means they are "cross tolerant" in that tolerance to one creates some tolerance to every other depending on the differences mentioned earlier. That means rotating will slow the process by some percentage, maybe 20-70% depending on which and how you do it. You will still develop tolerance, you will slowly become physicallly addicted and when you quit you will experinece quite nasty withdrawal if you do this for a 6 months or more, give or take.
Rotation will work if you rotate away from the benzodiazepine sleep meds more than 50% of the time. The more the better. That gives your brain the time to adapt back to normal during the no benzo nights. They call that the drug holiday approach and it does work if followed properly. Some of the meds you can try during the no-benzo nights might be melatonin, Rozerem, Unisom, Benadryll, Remeron, Seroquel , Trazadone, Aluna, Valerian, 5HTP, nothing, etc...
Xyrem, Alcohol, Phenobarbital and Chloral Hydrate also work via the GABA mechanism so will have cross-tolerance also."
poster:temoigneur
thread:590352
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20051211/msgs/590557.html