Posted by helpme on July 9, 2006, at 11:02:08
In reply to Anticonvulsants / Benzo's and Sleep..., posted by Sobriquet Style on May 21, 2006, at 9:27:48
Interesting. I have been taking klonopin for sleeping due to lots of strong myoclonus for awhile (which turned out to be itself a side effect of a drug) , plus limb movements and then had a sleep study. They found I had almost no slow wave sleep (the deep stage) at all! I'm tapering off the klonopin though. I convinced my doctor that too much dinkering pharmaceutically might just be trading one isssue for another. He agreed, saying, "without that super deep sleep, anyone would become depressed or develop any number of serious mental disorder...it's practically a recipee for how to screw someone up."
Gabepeptine--is that neurontin, the drug famous for "looking for a disease to be for"? Maybe they found it...
> http://www.epilepsy.com/epilepsy/sleep_aeds.html
>
> Afew snippets;
>
> "More recently, studies that carefully look at this, some by testing drugs in normal volunteers who do not have epilepsy, have clearly shown that anticonvulsants can either enhance or disrupt sleep independent of their effects on seizures.
>
> Benzodiazepines (such as diazepam and lorazepam) and barbiturates( phenobarbital, primidone ) are used less commonly for chronic treatment of seizure disorders, but have the most convincing evidence for detrimental effects on sleep. Both of these classes of medications have been used as sleep promoting agents, although newer drugs have replaced these in recent years. They do decrease the time to fall asleep, but also decrease the amount of REM sleep and (in the case of benzodiazepines) slow wave sleep. Therefore, sleep quality can be adversely affected.
>
> Findings for carbamazepine are more variable, but there also seems to be a reduction in sleep particularly with initial treatment.
>
> Studies of newer AEDs suggest fewer detrimental effects on sleep. One study with lamotrigine showed decreases in slow wave sleep, but others have shown no change.
>
> Gabapentin has no detrimental effects on sleep, and in fact seems to enhance slow wave sleep in patients with epilepsy and in normal volunteers. Gabapentin also increases sleep continuity and decreases awakenings. Furthermore, limited studies suggest that gabapentin may be useful in the treatment of one common sleep disorder, restless legs syndrome, although carbamazepine and lamotrigine have also been used.
>
> Levetiracetam seems to have no detrimental effects on sleep.
>
> The effects of zonisamide, oxcarbazepine, and topiramate on sleep and sleep disorders are not known."
>
> A couple of good tables on the website too. Although this is more about antidepressants and sleep, I read this a while back and thought I'd throw it in..
>
> ~
poster:helpme
thread:646229
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060709/msgs/665412.html