Posted by yxibow on January 15, 2007, at 1:44:55
In reply to Trazodone for Insomnia--Seeking advice!, posted by DKScully on January 14, 2007, at 15:36:50
As a female, you don't have the worry of what is not as uncommon as is listed -- priapisms, with trazodone.
You're probably right that you're going through cross-withdrawals from previous agents. It does sound like you suffer from chronic insomnia, I can sympathize.
I'm not a great fan of trazodone (Desyrel), but then I am a male and while young (I dont think its a good agent for older males -- priapism is probably harder to manage), I still have experienced priapisms at least twice, fortunately mild. I generally don't like the off use of non-sleep agents for their sedation. However if you've been through the laundry list of hypnotics (have you ever tried Rozerem ?), then maybe its worth a trial.
It can cause orthostatic hypotension (low blood pressure) and make you feel dizzy if you dont get into bed on time.
It can also idiopathically cause a high pulse rate for no known reason, although this is fairly rare.
It is an antidepressant dating from around the 70s that a full adult dose would put someone to sleep, I guess thus eliminating depression. Its cousin nefazodone (Serzone) is still used in depression as a generic but cautiously because it has some liver function problems for some individuals. If you have any psychosis, which I don't believe you have, it is not a good agent, as one of its main metabolites, mCPP can aggravate such disorders.
You may after a while become used to the effects of a 25, 50mg dose of trazodone and creep up into the serotonergic range of 100 or 150mg. This doesn't always happen but one has to backtrack to a lower dose and rinse and repeat, especially since you're combining it with another serotonergic agent.
Hopefully to a good nights sleep-- Jay
poster:yxibow
thread:722249
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070113/msgs/722429.html