Posted by bleauberry on March 21, 2008, at 17:28:44
In reply to Severe Sleep disorder/Insomnia Help Needed, posted by jjjaspar on March 20, 2008, at 19:35:54
One of the more common side effects of wellbutrin is insomnia and sleep problems.
Aside from that, the sleep problems may be in other circuits not directly touched by seroquel. Sure the strong antihistamine effect of seroquel can make someone sleep, but the underlying problem is still there going full force. If it is some kind of undiagnosed form of mania, depakote would be worth a try. If it is some kind of anxiety, one of the benzodiazepines should be tried. An older tricyclic like amitriptyline is known for excellent sleep. If serotonin is low, an ssri might need to be onboard.
Since you are asking about natural things, they would include:
GABA
Magnesium glycinate
Magnesium citrate
Glycine
5htp
tryptophan
lithium orotateI don't see any problem adding these to seroquel and wellbutrin, though a bit more caution should be used with 5htp and tryptophan.
Something else that can help is an epsom salt bath, beginning with 1 cup per 15 minute soak working up to 3 cups. This gets magnesium into the body transdernally when gut or liver issues are interfering.
More than likely it will take a multipronged approach. Try each of the above one at a time. Then begin combining them. If serotonin, gaba, and magnesium are all in optimal supply, sleep should be robust. If still not, then lithium orotate may be in order.
Also helpful would be a 24 hour saliva cortisol test. If it is real high or real low, expect all kinds of serious health, mental, and sleep problems. This could be a common case of adrenal fatigue. This is commonly diagnosed, understood, recognized, and treated by integrative or alternative mds, but mainstream mds are out of the loop.
Thyroid needs to be checked too. If it is haywire, it could take a boatload of different drugs or supplements to calm things down and yet still not fix the problem. You want more than the basic TSH. You need freeT3, freeT4, and the 3 thyroid antibodies checked.
If a doc won't give these tests, they are available online from popular national labs. They send you a kit, you do the test and send it back and they email you the results.
poster:bleauberry
thread:819083
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/alter/20080110/msgs/819276.html