Posted by jack smith on April 10, 2003, at 17:35:44
In reply to Re: Connections between Short Half Lives and Sedation? » jack smith, posted by Ritch on April 9, 2003, at 23:27:22
> 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.
Given my VERY LIMITED scientific knowledge, I trust that you are correct that there is no correlation between half life and sedation. It does seem like a strange coincidence though that, at least with ssri's, the degree of sedation generally is least with prozac (the longest half life), then zoloft, celexa and lexapro (mid range half lives, more reports of sedation on lex than celexa and lex has a shorther half life) and then paxil and luvox (very short half lives). But of course everyone's experiences vary. At least for me, the half life of an ssri has thus far correllated to sedation but then I have only tried three (if you include effexor as an ssri).
JACK
poster:jack smith
thread:217779
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030407/msgs/218310.html