Mental Health valdoxan. and other drugs that may help my sleeping pattern

[All the Colours]

i take one 25mg valdoxan pill every night. it worked wonders for about 2 months but lately my sleeping pattern has been all over the place. which doesn't sound like a big deal but it has a serious impact on my life. I don't know why it would of stopped working?? i was falling asleep by midnight every night. should i talk to my doctor about upping the dosage? or maybe get onto something else. any recommendations on good sleeping pills? and how to convince my doctor to prescribe them? valium and Xanax are great. and they get me high so that's an added bonus

 

[FnX]

I have read multiple anecdotal reports where somebody complains that valdoxan / agomelatine worked really good but then simply stopped working after they took it for a couple months. It could be a tolerance issue, 25mg and 50mg are both commonly prescribed dosages so you could always ask your doctor if it's a good idea to try a higher dose, after all this medication did help you. If you want less and not more problems, I seriously recommend staying away from benzodiazepines as a everyday long-term sleeping aid.

 

[Mel22]

I took 50mg of agomelatine for around a month for delayed sleep phase syndrome. It worked for around three weeks and then stopped, so I ceased use at the end of week four. And then BAM - my sleep goes haywire. My sleeping patterns were then the absolute worst I've ever had in my life for around six weeks. And I'm talking significantly bad - I had to completely change the times I was working, or I wouldn't have been able to work at all. It definitely screwed me for almost two months - significant impact. These sleeping disturbances were also resistant to change (ie. after skipping a night of sleep in an attempt to be able to sleep the following night - I would be exhausted, but come night time, I would not be able to sleep a wink). I tried quite a few things to correct it, but nothing worked at all.

My sleep seems okay now, and appears to have slowly reverted back to almost where it was, but I would proceed with caution if taking this relatively new medication. I still don't feel as though my sleep is as good as it was before agomelatine, and it has been ~6 months since I last took it.

I was also concerned about any interactions there may be re: agomelatine + other drugs. There are a lot of unknowns in this regard.

If you have not done so already, I strongly recommend that you exhaust absolutely all other options re: correcting your sleep before resorting to medication.

Agomelatine - definitely a negative experience for me overall. YMMV.

 

[drscience]

Agomelatine? is the MEL part somehow related to melatonin?

to answer my own question: (from wikipedia)

Agomelatine resynchronises circadian rhythms in animal models of delayed sleep phase syndrome[10] and other circadian rhythm disruptions. It increases noradrenaline and dopamine release specifically in the frontal cortex and has no influence on the extracellular levels of serotonin. Agomelatine has shown an antidepressant-like effect in animal models of depression (learned helplessness test, despair test, chronic mild stress) as well as in models with circadian rhythm desynchronisation and in models related to stress and anxiety. In humans, agomelatine has positive phase shifting properties; it induces a phase advance of sleep, body temperature decline and melatonin onset.[2]

 

[All the Colours]

hmm its disappointing that this has happened and the fact that its not uncommon with valdoxan means ill have to talk to the doctor about something else. I don't want to up the dosage only to find the same problem again in a couple more months. thanks for your replies im gonna ask about sleep therapy and going to a sleep clinic

 

[reformed]

Mirtazapine is a great drug for sleep, not the best anti-depressant out there but It is actually MORE sedating in LOWER doses e.g. 15-30mg. I had been on it for a year and it helped my sleep pattern a lot. I also know people coming off weed who take it and find it very useful for sleep

 

[n3ophy7e]

hmm its disappointing that this has happened and the fact that its not uncommon with valdoxan means ill have to talk to the doctor about something else. I don't want to up the dosage only to find the same problem again in a couple more months. thanks for your replies im gonna ask about sleep therapy and going to a sleep clinic

I have a long history of depression and anxiety, and have tried every single type of traditional anti-depressant there is. Earlier this year I became very depressed and anxious again, and I wasn't sleeping AT ALL. I went to a new psychiatrist and after considering my history of adverse reactions to SSRIs, SNRIs, NRIs, and MAOIs, she started me on Valdoxan. I hadn't even heard of it and I was really excited to see how it would go.
I started on 25mg at night, and I was able to sleep for about 4-5 hours. After only about a week this effect started wearing off so I went up to 50mg a night. I was still only getting like 4-6 hours sleep, MAX. After a couple of months, it just stopped working and I went off the deep end. Very depressed and suicidal. I went back to the psych and she started me on Cymbalta. Long story short, now I'm fine. But I was really hopeful that Valdoxan would be the new wonder drug. I felt that it was too mild in its efficacy. It disappoints me to see that others have had similar experiences with it.

Anyway, ask your doctor about going up to 50mg and see how that goes. Good luck!

Also, not sure if your doctor mentioned this, but please get your liver checked when taking Valdoxan. It can raise your liver enzymes.

 

[paranoid android]

Mirtazapine is a great drug for sleep, not the best anti-depressant out there but It is actually MORE sedating in LOWER doses e.g. 15-30mg. I had been on it for a year and it helped my sleep pattern a lot. I also know people coming off weed who take it and find it very useful for sleep

Remeron (mirtazapine) is pretty damn good drug for sleep. I was on it for abit and it did help my sleep alot but i had to stop taking it for various reasons. The only thing about it was that the ungodly hunger it creates which makes Cannabis look like meth often made me empty out half the damn fridge before i went to sleep.

I found the tricyclic anti-depressant amitriptyline to work great for sleep and it's not a bad for depression either. Unlike with most drugs used for insomnia you don't build a quick tolerance to the sedating effects of amitriptyline or atleast i didn't. I was on it for over 2 years i think (this was awile ago) and it worked great for sleep even after it's anti-depressant and pain killing properties had worn off. The doses used for sleep are generally much lower then those used for depression. 10-50mg's is usually enough for sleep where as 50mg's and over is the usual anti-depressant dose.

Also they don't use Xanax for sleep or atleast they usually don't as it is mostly effective as a quick acting drug to treat panic attacks and generally doesn't cause much sedation. Valium is used for insomnia and it is effective for it but we all know the problems associated with benzos when it comes to sleep. Zopiclone which is a Z-hypnotic like zolpidem aka ambien is but lacks most of the weird effects of ambien would be a better option then benzos in my opinion. Zopiclone does act much like a hypnotic benzo and it is addictive but from what i have seen it is much less addictive then benzos are. It is not hard to get zopiclone prescribed to you here and i have never seen a case where someone got serious withdrawal symptoms from it. I have used 15mg's of it (twice as much as the recommended prescribed dose) for sleep on and off for months on end with no trouble quitting except for rebound insomnia.

If you haven't done so already cut out the caffeine as that is a big contributor to both anxiety and insomnia. Exercise also helps insomnia and even if it doesn't help yours it's still good for you and will improve your over all mood