Posted by Gale Fox on June 10, 2003, at 8:23:15
In reply to Straterra at night ? Other questions....., posted by froggyanna on June 2, 2003, at 16:52:39
See my responses below. I'm taking Strattera for depression (80 mg) and 100 mg Wellbutrin.
So my questions are:
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> 1. Has anyone else been advised to take Straterra at night? If so, is that decreasing your daytime sleepiness?I take 40 mg in the moring & 40 mg in the afternoon - one of several unpleasant side effects for me was insomnia.
2. If you increased your dosage slowly, did you avoid the tiredness? The agitation? The irritability?
I wish my doctor had been willing to strat me out on 10 mg. I did go up slowly, had good effects at 25 mg after a month, but then lost them as we withdrew Wellbutrin. Increasing the dosage and adding the Wellbutrin back in have helped, but I'm not seeing the dramatic improvement I saw (& felt) in February.
3. Would there be any benefit to taking part of the dose before bed and part in the morning?
I think the benefit of splitting the dosage is that you get Strattera in your system more consistently over time.
> 4. How many days did you go before increasing?
I have to go at least a week, sometimes longer because of two side effects I have - increase in a benign tremor (exacerbated by Wellbutrin), insomnia (Also exacerbated by Wellbutrin). Currently I'm postponing going up to 100 mg Strattera because of constipation. I'm told my body will adjust to the med, but meanwhile I'm taking something for the constipation as well.
5. Was it a month or more before you started experiencing any real effect on your ADD symptoms? Are you MAINTAINING those effects?
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I'm tking for depression, not ADD. But yes, it was 3-4 weeks before I felt and effect. It was dramatic, but then dropped off - Now that I'm up to 80 mg, I'm trying to give it a 6 week trial.> Those are only some of my questions, actually. I'm just so eager to get my head straightened out that I'm feeling impatient, even though I KNOW that I have to give it time. I suppose that if someone had actually stabilized on Straterra they might not still be hanging around this discussion forum. But I sure would like to hear some real success stories. I am "afraid" to start taking the stimulants... at least not until I've done all I can without them.
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> Thank you VERY much for any and all advice you can offer!
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> froggyanna
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poster:Gale Fox
thread:133458
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030609/msgs/232851.html