Insomnia Forum Posting

Posted by Brian Bridge on June 01, 1999 at 08:37:03:

In Reply to: Help With Trazadone posted by Robert on May 31, 1999 at 23:09:17:

Robert: This was posted by me on March 08, 1999

(Sorry, its not formatted correctly because I just did a "copy & paste" from my previous post.)

Note: The following is MY personal experience with certain medications.
Consult your own doctor for his or her recommendation.

I'd just like to offer some hope to any insomniac's…especially those who fall
asleep easily, but wake up and can't get back to sleep.

I found a combination of pills that are certainly not a cure, but work for me
without being addicting. I use 200 mg of Desyrel (Trazodone- often misspelled
Trazadone), along with 20 mg of Buspirone HCL (Buspar). The Trazodone is an anti-depressant, while Buspar is an anti-anxiety pill. Both of these which have the side-effect of making you sleepy.

Now, getting used to this combination was not easy. When I first took the
combination, I freaked out the next day in a store when confronted by a simple
mental task. I had to leave the store in a hurry and run home to take some
Ativan.

In addition, I had to take off 2 weeks from work around the holidays in order to
find the correct dose and time of administration that worked best for me.

My neurologist recommended that I take the combination of pills at 7 pm. The
Buspar is to be taken on an empty stomach, while the Trazodone info says that
you need to take it with food (just a piece of bread is supposedly Ok).

But if I take the combination at 7 pm, I start falling asleep at 7:30 pm, and that's
too early to be able to 'make it through' until 4 or 5 am the next morning. So I
take them around 9:30 pm. This is supposedly not an ideal time because the
Trazodone can leave you really groggy the next day. So, if you take it earlier in
the evening, the grogginess 'should' dissipate sooner in the morning.

Even after 5 months of use, I still get a little grogginess in the morning. But at
least some of the other unpleasant side effects have gone away. The worst side
effect was nausea. But I also had muscle cramping, and some other minor stuff.
And, for you men, expect the usual loss of libido as with most anti-depressants.

Another problem I had with the combination (in the beginning) was anxiety
attacks. At times, my heart would pound due to some unknown fear. And once,
I became afraid to sleep, thinking that I was going to die.

To get over this, I had to take small doses of Ativan (.5-.75 mg) about one-half
hour before I took the Trazodone and Buspar combination.

Also, at first, I found that the combination of pills was STILL not allowing me
to sleep through the night. So, if I'd wake up, I would take any of the following
(on a 'rotating' basis) to help me get back to sleep: eat several cookies (the sugar
always makes me sleepy); take 800 mg of Motrin (at my age I always have
some ache or pain, anyway); take one-half Chlortrimeton antihistamine; or take
400 I.U. of water soluble Vitamin E…either alone, or in combination with the
Motrin or cookies. (I read about the Vitamin E in another 'post' in this forum).

But now, even though I wake up one or two times at night, I'm able to get back
to sleep, within a half-hour, without any assistance from anything listed in the
above paragraph…providing that some problem isn't weighing heavily on my
mind.

I've read other 'posts' in this forum from people who said that they've tried
Trazodone and had to give it up because of the side effects (probably some that
I've listed above).
And I admit, I wanted to give up a few times myself. But since I tried
everything else without success, and the combination showed some 'promise'
despite the side effects, I figured that I'd better do whatever was necessary to
give the pills a chance to work.

- Good luck to us all.

Follow Ups:

• Re: Help With Trazadone Robert 6/12/99 (0)

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