Why does Ambien act as an Anxiolytic for me

[Addyman]

I found a simple 10mg Adderall IR (which is 1/3 my daily adderall prescription)
With a 5mg Ambien

ACTS AS the BEST anxiolytic mix I've ever had, blows 10mg Klonopin or Xanax out of the water

I was wondering... why? Anyone else have this experience? (I'm also looking for GABA related answers)

 

[sekio]

Everyone responds differently to benzodiazepines and the Z-class drugs because of the high degree of polymorphism in the GABA receptor subunit types between individuals.

Ambien (zolpidem) is super wierd, especially. Somre people find it's a good sleep aid, some find it's useless, some have horrid side effects, some don't. Sometimes people hallucinate or have memory loss. It causes some comatose people to wake up, even...

 

[mgrady3]

I think Sekio hit it spot on.
Ambien is designed to target GABA-A sub unit alpha1; but it also hits other parts of the GABA receptor complex with a lower selectivity. That coupled with the fact that each person's GABA receptors are unique means that the effects you get from GABA specific drugs like benzos or Z-drugs will vary. For me Ambien did next to nothing up to 20mg. At 20mg it worked mildly as a sedative. Its possible that you simply don't have as many alpha1 GABA receptors, thus the sedative action isn't as strong so you feel the anxiolysis more prominently than others do; its probably not that simple but I'm not sure anyone can give you an exact answer.

 

[NeighborhoodThreat]

Yep. What sekio said.

the Z-drugs and benzodiazepines are very similar for some people.