Posted by uncouth on April 6, 2012, at 12:26:31
In reply to Re: Adding Parnate and prazosin. » uncouth, posted by SLS on April 6, 2012, at 1:32:33
Scott, thanks for taking the time to write such n extensive response. I am bipolar 2 with some obsessive tendencies and ADHD, both of which are relatively controlled for the first time in a long time. I am on a LOT of meds/supplements as I have posted about here before. I have some suspicions that use of low dose naltrexone for a few months may have caused some epigenetic changes that persist despite stopping the LDN.
I tried 6mg of prazosin last night, and accidentally also took my clonidine 0.2mg -- I went to bed around 8:30 - 9pm and was still awake after 1am. I may have had minimal and light sleep between that time. But I got up multiple times to EAT...that has also been my pattern at night, insatiable hunger and carb cravings. Since I've been off the saphris for a few days, which was the only thing that helped initiate sleep, I had to try some SGAs again last night. First started with 20mg latuda, then when i was still awake, tried 25-50mg of seroquel, then still couldn't initiate sleep, so finally topped it off with 12.5mg ambien CR. i had also taken 2.5mg melatonin, valerian, tryptophan, and 2 capsules of MRM Relax-All (which contained 250mg of phenibut) earlier in the evening. All of this and I still only got 4-5 hours of non restful sleep. This has been going on for almost 9 months now, and it is seriously impacting my mental and physical health, stamina, and ability to do much of anything in the evening. I exercise every day in the mid afternoon, intensely, which gets me so tired, but i still can't initiate sleep. I have a lot on my mind, and am under significant stress because of unemployment, but my depression is better than it has been in a long time, so I don't get it.
We did a 24 hour cortisol test a few weeks ago which showed slightly elevated cortisol at night, so my naturapathic MD prescribed 300mg phosphatidylserine which apparently reduces cortisol.
In the last 9 months, I have tried the following drugs for insomnia:Saprhis which worked in the beginning, and still seems to be the only thing that initiate sleep, but i have to take it multiple times per night and at the end, it wasn't even helping continuity or depth at all. Caused me significant weight gain and I'm trying to get off it.
Seroquel...cannot initiate sleep unless very high dose, does not help with continuity, totally out of it next day and feel really bad.
Trazadone up to 150mg. Used to work for years at 50mg
Ambien CR -- very poor quality sleep, out of it next day, usually cannot initiate sleep on its own.
Sonata - didn't work
Lunesta - used to work, does not do much of everything.
Clonidine - does not work alone at 0.2mg
Prazosin - Just starting to try now
Vistral - failure
Benadryl - failure
Low dose remeron - failure
Zyprexa - could not initiate sleep, did not really help with continuity, don't want to take because of weight gain.
Xanax - worked the first night or two when i took it after waking up in the middle of the night, does not seem to work anymore.
Gabapentin - total failure
Melatonin - nope
Valerian - nope
higher dose phenibut (2-3g), worked the first few times, then nothing
L-Tryptophan - still take it every night, but doesn't do anything
Taurine 1000mg doesn't do anythingI am on some pretty strong stimulants, but reducing then or dropping them hasn't effected sleep at all, and i've been on this dose for a while, and sleep was OK for many months on it. I am on 600mg wellbutrin, 20mg prozac, 60mg vyvanse, 0.5mg mirapex (tapering off), paxil 25mg (tapered off today) cerefolin NAC, take a total of 2600mg of NAC a day (could that be causing it?), and of course trying the above mentioned drugs for sleep. I also take a bunch of supplements, but haven't been able to isolate any of them as causing problems. I do have some suspicion that D-Phenylalanine might be causing some problems, I take 500mg of it a day, but i can't seem to give it up. When i've stopped for a few days, it doesn't seem to have much of an impact, but I do think there is risk.
I am going to probably drop the wellbutrin again to 300mg and see if that helps sleep at all, though i've done this before to no effect. I am trying to rebuild my adrenals via reducing my caffeine intake, regular intense exercise, siberian ginseng, ashwagahnda, adrenal cortex, high dose vitamin C, etc. as I suspect the insomnia might be cortisol related.
The thing is I am just SO SLEEPY, it's not like i'm wired, my eyes are so heavy and i am just totally exhausted every night, i just can't initiate sleep!
Cranial electrotherapy - just starting this up again, but even using it for a few hours yesterday, it didn't seem to help. Will continue with it though.
Thats a long list of potential medications which i haven' tried, my doctor is not convinced a benzo will be good for me in the long term, but if prazosin doesn't work, I may ask to try another benzo. I haven't thought about xyrem, i thought that was for narcolepsy, can that help with insomnia too?
poster:uncouth
thread:1005781
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20120328/msgs/1015074.html