Misc Vistaril (Hydroxyzine) Is it completely useless?

[DeadElvis666]

I was prescribed these for anxiety. No matter how many I take they don't seem to do shit. I feel maybe a little bit more relaxed, but it's pretty unnoticeable. I've had to take benzo's (unfortunately not prescribed) to actually deal with my anxiety. What's with Vistaril? Is it completely useless?

 

[XANAX XR]

If you've taken benzos, yes it's useless.

It was useless before I took benzos... funny thing, side note basically for myself - Anything that down-regulates my brain's activity and body I have a moderate tolerance to (w/o ever doing it) i.e. benzos, opiates, muscle relaxers, other downers. However, with stimulants, psychedelics and any drug that alters brain chemistry (besides downers) I am extremely sensitive to, usually in a bad way.

 

[ducednig]

i've had a year long xanax addiction.
after getting off xanax, if i had to choose between xanax or visatril for sleep id rather choose vistaril.
it gives a great sedating effect that doesn't seem to mess with my cns but lifts my mood.

 

[Burnt Offerings]

To me it's not even one of the more sedating 1st gen antihistamines, personally I find diphenhydramine to be more sedating.

People like to use it to potentiate opiates and/or alleviate opiate nausea. That's about what it's good for.

 

[opanabanana]

Hmm, Hydroxyzine is a great opiate potentiator and works wonders for nausea and motion sickness, but for anxiety or depression it will not be too effective. Chlorpheniramine Maleate, another anti-histamine is supposed to have SNRI activity, and many people with GAD, or other anxiety disorders say that Chlor-Maleate has made them feel 'happier'.

OB

 

[speedballs_over]

Chlorpheniramine Maleate - I worked with this cmpd when I was in pharmaceutical chemistry. If I recall correctly, it's been 20 years, there's some potential serious side effects from this compound.

Also, some people who "trip" on dxm and have mistakenly or ignorantly taken formulations with Chlorpheniramine Maleate, have found it very uncomfortable.

Anyone else have + / - things to say about this odd cmpd? I'm still curious how people react to it.

 

[c4oz]

Hydroxyzine helped me with wdrawals from tappering benzos. Good anxiolitic if you are detoxing of benzos, like hipnotic not bad..

 

[cj]

I find it useless for anxiety.

 

[SKL]

Vistaril is useful enough. You cannot expect benzodiazepine-like pain relief, it is much subtler than that, there is not the semi-euphoria and relaxation you get from benzos, but there is a very real anxiolytic effect. It is not merely an antihistamine sedative. If it were, you might as well take benadryl, which would be a waste. But hydroxyzine, which is actually a pretty neat molecule ...

... also antagonizes 5HT2A and (mildly) dopamine which is where the real anxiolytic efficacy comes in.

It is fairly sedating and good for sleep. It potentiates opiates.

How much are you taking?

 

[paranoid android]

Yeah it has some 5-HT2A antagonism which i would say why it seems to work better then other anti-histamines such as Diphenhydramine, Doxylamine and Promethazine as a few examples at treating anxiety. Though Promethazine does act as a D2 antagonist though not nearly strong enough to be a useful anti-psychotic and maybe as a 5-HT2A antagonist as well to some degree. Hydroxyzine also has the benefit of not acting as a anti-cholinergic so you don't get any of the side effects or toxicity associated with anti-cholinergic's. Most doctors i know see Hydroxyzine as being one of the safer anti-histamines for long term use actually. It can help some peoples anxiety better then other anti-histamines but i doubt it would help anxiety bad enough where the person actually needs Benzodiazepines. I never found it to come close to benzos in how good it is at treating anxiety but everyone is different. It is a really good anti-histamine though and a decent sleep aid as well.

I do find it to be different then other sedating anti-histamines in that it does not induce any zombie type effect like Diphenhydramine or Promethazine does which is probably due to it's lack of Muscarinic receptor antagonism. It's great for boosting just about any opiate too and it sucks that you need a script for it although it's not hard to get one. I just find it ridiculous that you can get Promethazine OTC in Canada but need a script for Hydroxyzine.

 

[bingey]

^
same situation in FRANCE worse even 20 mg codeine pills are otc b ut the mixed codeine/apap formula isn't

 

[UpInFlames]

It's great for itching, including that from opioids/opiates, and slightly sedative

 

[Mmp85]

They gave it to me in rehab since they wouldn't give benzos obviously. I ended up with several bottles post rehab but I went back on Klonopin once it was approved by my psychiatrist because I've never had an abuse problem and don't take a high dose. So I still have a lot of Vistaril. I take it occassionally at night it I'm trying to avoid taking benzos daily and building a tolerance. It helps me sleep and that's it.
My mother gets hives related to anxiety so I gave her one once thinking it would be perfect and it made her high as a kite. Which was weird because she can function fine on stuff klonopin or xanax. I haven't given it to her since.

 

[Dnlpain]

what does quote mean?

i've had a year long xanax addiction.
after getting off xanax, if i had to choose between xanax or visatril for sleep id rather choose vistaril.
it gives a great sedating effect that doesn't seem to mess with my cns but lifts my mood.

how hard was it to get off of xanax? I don't know how to ask the people questions, so I attempted this. It has to be wrong! How do I just click reply so I an response and ask questions about the posts?