Posted by KimberlyDi on September 9, 2003, at 13:47:51
In reply to Re: Effexor XR and Insomnia, posted by Tommeh on September 9, 2003, at 10:15:46
> Thanks for the followup so far gang. To add a little more information the trazadone, benedryl, and tylenol do not work at all for her. She is sometimes able to get to sleep but doesn't get any rest, mostly due to these dreams.
>
> It doesn't matter what time of day she is taking it, her doctor recommends upping the dosage, however I think it might be a sign to try switching to another drug
>
Upping or changing should be decided by her and the doc, not a 3rd party. Doctor's looking for a therapeutic level. I hit mine at 300mg. The 3rd party remark may seem like a slap in the face, but it wasn't meant to be. Psycho-Babble will help her more if she was posting instead of you. She could list exactly what her symptoms were, and based upon that, folks could share similar stories and list what worked for them.> (based on what i've read about withdrawl symptoms anyways).
>
Effexor is a powerful medication. Withdrawal can be handled safely by tapering down slowly instead of quitting cold turkey.> I know i've read other people posting about very vivid dreams, sometimes even violent ones (and she's far from a violent person).
>
From what I've read, the majority of violent dreams come when a person quits taking the Effexor XR and goes through withdrawal. I've experienced one violent dream where I was fighting my husband's ex-wife and actually punched and kicked in reality. Lucky that I had my back to hubby.> I've seen a few herbal sleeping agents such as 5HTP but they strongly recommend not using them with regular anti depressants... now is there something factual to base that on or are they just not wanting people to use herbal remedies??
Ask her to contact her pdoc about whether or not she can take 5HTP. Try another post with "Paging Larry Hoover" in the subject. He seems to be really sharp on non-prescription methods.
poster:KimberlyDi
thread:258122
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030907/msgs/258419.html