Posted by Cybele on June 7, 2007, at 10:00:45
In reply to Re: Dealing with med-induced drowsiness on the job, posted by nolegirl23 on May 30, 2007, at 21:21:48
> If there is an answer to this, I would love to know about it! I get soooo tired at work, lots of times I go in a co-workers' office who has a couch in her office and sleep.. My boss knows about my psych issues, and about all the meds I'm on. NObody really says anything, but then again I have a really great group of co-workers..
I had the same problem with two antidepressants. My PDOC prescribed Provigil (which is used for narcolepsy, among other things) and it didn't make any difference at all. I could even drink coffee and take Provigil and not feel awake.
I think the sleepiness problem with certain ADs for certain people is that it messes up your sleep--i.e., too much REM sleep, not enough "restful" sleep, very short REM latency. For example, I would start dreaming as soon as my head hit the pillow. I know this because my family might wake me up not realizing I was asleep already, and they woke me from a dream. On one occasion when my husband was working late I laid down to read a book in bed and fell asleep before getting my young kids to bed. Fortunately I woke up a few hours later and found they'd just crawled in bed with me at some point and were sound asleep.
I found that if an AD makes you that sleepy and you have been taking it for a couple months, then it is not the right AD for you. In my case, the two ADs that caused this were Wellbutrin (but only after I had taken it off and on for 10 years) and Cymbalta.
poster:Cybele
thread:760144
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070604/msgs/761608.html