Posted by King Vultan on September 10, 2004, at 9:38:12
In reply to Trouble sleeping - please help, posted by KaraS on September 9, 2004, at 20:16:18
One thing you can do that took me years to figure out is to alternate sleep aids. I was also wary of stuff like Ambien and even made a 30 pill prescription last over five years, as I was so worried about becoming dependent on it that I rarely ever used it. Obviously, I got very little benefit from it also, and my antidepressant induced insomnia went largely untreated.
Now that I am on an MAOI, the insomnia is so bad I really have no choice and have had to come up with some kind of scheme to combat the sleeplessness. I just increased the Halcion/triazolam that I take every other night to a whole 0.25 mg pill. Half a pill was sufficient for me on Nardil, but it isn't enough on Parnate. The 2 x 25 mg of Benadryl that worked to some extent on Nardil seems to be woefully inadequate on Parnate, so I am going to have to figure out something else. I was planning on talking to my doctor about trying trazodone again, or maybe doxepin, Surmontil/trimipramine, hydroxyzine, or maybe something even more unconventional.
Your heart racing on the Benadryl is likely due to that drug's anticholinergic properties; Benadryl is strong enough that way to have some efficacy in treating Parkinson's Disease, but I think more for people with milder symptoms. There is another OTC sleep aid very similar to the molecule used in Benadryl/diphenhydramine, which is the doxylamine succinate that is in the Unisom tablets (there is also another Unisom product that contains 50 mg diphenhydramine, just to be confusing). I don't know how anticholinergic the doxylamine really is compared to diphenhydramine, as neither of them have the effect on me you describe, but I do doubt if the doxylamine is any worse--and it might be better.
One of the drugs I mentioned, trimipramine/Surmontil came up once when I was talking to my pdoc. I believe he said he uses it particularly for people with stomach problems, so it may have a tendency to make you less sick than the trazodone, but this is another super powerful tricyclic antihistamine, nearly as strong as doxepin. I would expect it to have some of the same chubbiness inducing properties, but I have heard that it is supposed to be unusually good for sleep, though.
Todd
poster:King Vultan
thread:388936
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040909/msgs/389135.html