Posted by bleauberry on August 13, 2010, at 18:13:27
In reply to Treatment Resistant Chronic Insomnia - Disability, posted by EastC on August 13, 2010, at 15:04:32
I think it makes sense to try out various physciological/neurological substances that may be deficient or impaired. Thinking of things like magnesium, glycine, gaba, tryptophan. I found a combo of Mg, glycine, and gaba to be particularly potent for supporting natural sleep (instead of knocking you out, they give the body the materials and instructions to carry out the software program called sleep).
In the herbal category, lemon balm prevents the breakdown of existing gaba and has tested positive for insomnia combined with passionflower and/or valerian. I'll have to hunt through my Dr Zhang Lyme book to find it again, but there is one herb in particular that is powerful for sleep without hangover. These herbs in my experience do help. Skullcap with valerian was especially potent.
I guess what I'm saying is, various plants can be more potent than medicines because they have synergistic mechanisms built into them that are uniquely different than any manmade drug. And if there is some element or mineral that is disrupted in your biochemistry, nothing is going to work very well until that missing link is supported. That's why I mentioned magnesium. Another would be high dose niacinamide (not niacin).
Take some of these natural substances along with your prescriptions and see what a difference it makes.
Sometimes the opioid system is somehow involved, since practically everything in the body...immune, hormones, pituitary...are linked to our endorphins. A trial of LDN (low dose naltrexone 1.5mg-3mg) would be a decent diagnostic and therapeutic trial. And think about it, what is the one area that is almost always missed when treating treatment resistant depression or anxiety or insomnia....the endogenous opioids. Too much focus on the common names serotonin, norepinephrine, dopamine, and gaba.
You may also want to do a 4-sample cortisol test within a 24 hour period to see what is going on there. Normally it follows an up and down curve throughout 24 hours. If yours doesn't follow that curve, then you just found a problem. If it is lower or higher than a normal curve at any point, then you found a problem. Not hard to correct them either.
I suppose you have already tried 1mg-3mg of remeron?
2.5mg-5mg zyprexa?
25mg-100mg seroquel?
10mg-25mg amitriptyline?Just trying to give you some ideas and hope, trying to stick to ones that I know have true potential.
Ahh, just remembered. The Zhang herb is called HerbSom. Can be taken alone or with meds.
poster:bleauberry
thread:958465
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20100811/msgs/958476.html