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  • BDD Moderators: Keif’ Richards

whats the last line of insomnia treatment?

StaySedated

StaySedated

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Aug 21, 2010
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i suffer from severe, chronic insomnia and nothing has really been working. my doc says were near the end of the treatment spectrum. i have had trazodone, ambien, lunesta, and a variety of benzos. the last one scripted was temazepam(30mg) to be taken with 2 mg. clonazepam, and my doc said if this doesn't work, than he doesn't know what will.

well, it's not working and i'm going to see him soon and tell him. what do you think would be perscribed next-barbs?raised benzo doses?

idk, what do you think is a last resort for severe insomnia?
 
also, i've tried EVERY otc sleep aid with no sucess. that includes melatonin, doxylamine, diphenhydramine, valerian, etc.
 
Thats interesting, I'm sure ill be in your place down the road in a few months. In the past 2 weeks I've went from 10mg ambien every night to 20mg, then 10mg of sonata. None of which are working. I'm hoping to get some benzo's and 2mg of klonopin one or more times a day is perfect for me because I'm severely stressed along with my insomnia (which just makes one another 10x worse). I'm not sure what the next step is for you but I hope you find it, I know how horrible insomnia is. I'm interested to see others responses as well :)
 
I've been in a similar position, but benzos will only make your insomnia worse in the long run. I've actually had some luck with trazodone, high-dose melatonin (~5mg) and a playlist of familiar tv shows.

Generally, most doctors will pull you off benzos sooner or later. I'd start trying alternatives now so you're not totally fucked when the inevitable happens.
 
I take 150-200mg's of Seroquel each night to treat my insomnia - it's about the only thing that makes me fall asleep. I've been on zopiclone and hypnotic benzos in the past, but the trouble with those is that they're addictive and your tolerance to them keeps increasing, meaning you need to take more and more over time just to get the same effect.
 
i tried nearly all of hem out there... apart fropm flunitrazepam, and i would say loprazolam is the best hynotic alonside phenobarbital, and so stay basleep and no havee regular awakenings, then this.... "Mepronizine" (meprobamate 400mg, aceprometazine and acepromazine), carisprodol and a sedative neuroleptic and anti-histamine would be the equivalent...
 
seroquel.
stay away from olanzapine, it is seroquel's big brother but has had several class-action lawsuits.

you also may want to consider an ssri in conjunction with the benzos.

also, another option would be to try pregabalin aka lyrica or it's little brother gabapentin.

I am a chronic insomniac also - I can take up to 50mg of Valium or equivalent levels of benzos to no avail. sometimes my Lyrica works, sometimes not.

you can always just drink yourself to sleep like i end up doing most nights.
 
GHB would be an ideal choice as it WILL make make you sleep whether you want to or not at a certain dose. I would up the dose of temazepam as I find it is a superior sleep aid in high doses.
 
doxylamine works well its mad eout of the husks of the opium poppy also valium works quite well for me i also clonazepam works pritty good i was on 5mg but wasent doing the best job so doctor switched me to valium becouse the insomnia was caused by strees and now i take 0-15 mg of valium a day and it has fixed me up
 
"doxylamine works well its mad eout of the husks of the opium poppy"
Can you please provide a source for this; I don't think it is true at all (the part about it being made from opium poppies)
 
^ I highly doubt it too.

The last line of medication to treat severe insomnia would probably be a barbiturate or seroquel.

Your doctor may not want to prescribe you a barbiturate because he's not comfortable prescribing them to any of his patients (most of them are more tightly controlled (Schedule II) than benzos or z-drugs (Schedule IV)).

As an example, my doctor will not under any circumstances prescribe me Valium because he had a patient apparently go into convulsions in his office while on the medication but he's fine prescribing any other benzos.

Seroquel is an atypical antipsychotic that's prescribed off label for insomnia and I'm fairly certain that a high dose may sedate you. If you want, you can ask your doctor about this medication if you are desperate to sleep. It's not a controlled substance so I don't see why he would have a problem prescribing it to you other than, say, if you are morbidly obese or have diabetes as Seroquel has been known to cause significant weight gain and also blood sugar level increases with long term use. Put it this way though, 100mg of Seroquel knocked me out for 12 hours while I was high on meth (a very potent stimulant).
 
The best approach for your health is to have a sleep-study done to determine the cause of insomnia and work with a therapist to improve sleep hygiene.

Most all sleeping medications will build tolerance and stop working, leaving you worse than where you started (ala michael jackson.) They really shouldn't be taken more than 10 days at a time for these reasons.
 
To the original poster, I suffer from insomnia as well. It's making me real grumpy and my pm doctor is being a total dick. I mean three years ago he had no problem giving me small amounts of xanax, then decided it was too addicting. I go and see him every couple weeks for hydro and he gives me vistoril-didn't help. He's amazed over this, and I'm pleading with him to give me something for sleep. I mean the past four days I may have had a total of 10 hours sleep. I saw him Tuesday and pleaded my case again, and he's annoyed already because I used too many hydro. "No benzos for you Theresa" I sit there crying because I'm so frustrated. Ok let's try amitriptyline again. You could use this because I think you're depressed" I want to go back to my old doctor because he would give me valium. In my experience from long ago, phenobarbitol was great for sleep. But I have no source in which to obtain this. I have loads of seroquel, but hate it because it gives me a very rapid heartbeat. Plus I want to eat everything in the kitchen before passing out, even if I take 50 mg, I hate that drug!
 
^ Did you begin to run out early of Xanax when you were prescribed it? In my experience, doctors hate this and will brand you an addict if they see this happening more than once or twice at most. Either way, try switching doctors (I realize it's not that easy) if he's being a jerk.
 
i'm hoping not for him to give me seroquel, as i've "used" it (STUPIDILY tried a "Q-ball")and it made me feel like shit, not to mention the possible serious long term effects. i am sensitive to antidepressants, so that is not an option. i guess i'll have to shoot for barbs(i know this will not be easy).
 
GHB(Xyrem) should work like a charm...But take it only to sleep not on recreational purposes otherwise the addiction and withdrawal is horrible.

Also..stay away from stimulants...
 
Memeito said:
GHB(Xyrem) should work like a charm...But take it only to sleep not on recreational purposes otherwise the addiction and withdrawal is horrible.

Also..stay away from stimulants...
Click to expand...

i highly doubt my doc will give me Xyrem. theres probably a better chance of him giving me seconal than ghb.
 
I have tried many perscriptions for my insomnia and none of them seem to be works. Ive tried a vairity of muscle relaxents that don't work. I also tried trazadone which didnt work. My doctor put me on nortripyline but I couldn't take it other anti depressents like it because I have glacoma. Recenly I got put on gabbapentin but so far it doesn't seem to be helpng.

Marijuana is one thing that really helps me sleep but I am not able to smoke anymore. Recently my doctor drug tested me because I'm on pain medication and it turned up possitive for marijuana. She threatend to drop me as a patient and stoped perscribing me my pain meds. I was able to get them back by going to a psycologist. If I test possitive I'll be denied any form of medication and droped from the pratice; and I really need the new treatment she is planning on starting to help supress the progression of the multiple chronic painfull conditions I'm sufforing from.
 
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