Posted by Ritch on April 9, 2003, at 23:27:22
In reply to Connections between Short Half Lives and Sedation?, posted by jack smith on April 9, 2003, at 11:08:07
> When I tried Paxil, I experienced pretty bad sedation so much so that even though I had a pretty good ad and anxiolytic effect, I quit it after four months. Now, I am on Effexor XR and am experiencing extreme sedation (150mg). Is it possible that shorter half life ssri's cause more sedation than longer half lives. At 150, Effexor acts mainly as an ssri so if I raised it to 225 is it possible that the NE effect will counter sedation?
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> BTW, I was on celexa which has a longer half life than effexor and paxil and did not experience significant tiredness or sedation. What do people think?I doubt that shorter half-lives would reliably correlate to increased sedation. I think it has more to do with whether the medication is relatively activating or not. I found Paxil and Luvox very tiring. Effexor makes me tired too. Of the SSRI's Prozac was the most activating, with Zoloft and Celexa just after that. It just could be a coincidence. Some of the very sedative TCA's such as amitriptyline have half-lives that are quite lengthy. Remeron has a half-life of about 30+hrs., and it is very sedative.
poster:Ritch
thread:217779
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030407/msgs/218067.html