Guest guest Posted April 5, 2001 Report Share Posted April 5, 2001 > A month or two ago there was some post about a sleeping pill that had > a bad reputation. The one that was ban in most European countries. > What is the name of the sleep medication. I think maybe Ellen was on > it and got off. Jack, I think you are talking about Ativan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 5, 2001 Report Share Posted April 5, 2001 Does anyone else have a problem with sleeping. I only average 1 to 2 hours if sleep a night. I am scared to try sleep aids. Anyone have this problem, if so what do you do? AFIBsupport wrote: > A month or two ago there was some post about a sleeping pill that had a bad reputation. The one that was ban in most European countries. What is the name of the sleep medication. I think maybe Ellen was on it and got off. Web Page http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AFIBsupport For more information: http://www.dialsolutions.com/af Post message: AFIBsupport Subscribe: AFIBsupport-subscribe Unsubscribe: AFIBsupport-unsubscribe List owner: AFIBsupport-owner Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 5, 2001 Report Share Posted April 5, 2001 Hi Sheila, are you only sleeping 1-2 hours a night because you are in AF? or worried about going in? I developed a " phobia " about sleeping, because of my afib episodes occuring when I was just about to fall asleep. I no longer " slept " in the same bed with my husband, and rested during the night propped up on about four pillows, because I thought being in a prone position brought on the af. When I described this anxiety to my doctor, she prescribed Ativan, an anti-anxiety drug. I take 1/2 mg each evening, and now sleep through the night. I have ignored the warnings about it, because it's so wonderful to sleep again, and to be alert and productive at my job. (I had previously had other sleep medication prescribed, but never took it because paliptations were listed as a common side effect, and I didn't need any more of those.) Sandy Re: Sleep Medication > > Does anyone else have a problem with sleeping. I only average 1 to 2 hours if sleep a night. I am scared to try sleep aids. Anyone have this problem, if so what do you do? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 5, 2001 Report Share Posted April 5, 2001 Ativan is the sleep medication that I was inquiring about. I had heard some bad stories about it and had forgotten the name. A friend of mine is on it and I found out the name. If he misses taking it, he has nightmares at night, and hallucinates during the day, but refuses to come off of it. Thanks to everyone who answered my post. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 5, 2001 Report Share Posted April 5, 2001 > Ativan is the sleep medication that I was inquiring about. > I had heard some bad stories about it and had forgotten the name. A > friend of mine is on it and I found out the name. If he misses > taking it, he has nightmares at night, and hallucinates during the > day, but refuses to come off of it. Thanks to everyone who answered > my post. Jack, I have posted about Ativan. I completed a taper off it about a month ago. According to my psychologist (I'm doing cognative behavioral therapy) and accupuncturist (an MD) both of which I'm seeing for anxiety, which is why my former internist prescribed ativan, it can take months after discontinuing it for the body to get totally back to normal. The withdrawal process is bad, supposedly the worst for any medication including because you have to taper off it so slowly. It took me 7 weeks to taper off 1 mg a day, and I had tremoring, freezing, hot flashes, flu-like symptoms, dizzy spells that lasted a half hour or more, nightmares, waking up every two hours at night, panic attacks to the sky, very hampering shortness of breath, agorophobia, depression, small seizures. Tachycardia is a very common withdrawal effect, as are extra beats. A small number of people, like me, seem to have afib as an effect, although this is not medically accepted. My first afib problem coincided with a doc taking me off all medication five days before a medical procedure. I didn't know at the time I has addicted to the ativan, as I didn't crave it, etc. I am hoping that as I get further away from it, my afib may get better (I wish :-) I am lucky that I have a new internist and new cardiologist who have been very supportive thru this whole mess. Ativan is a benzodiazepine(sp?) and its addictive effects are similar to other benzos, like Xanax, etc. I believe the current thinking is that it should not be prescribed for more than 2-4 weeks, although some doctors are still very ignorant of its dangers. One thing to note is that the body develops a tolerance for it, so someone can start developing withdrawal effects even without decreasing their dose. I am trying to walk for an hour a day and find that that helps a lot with sleeping. A nice med, huh. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 5, 2001 Report Share Posted April 5, 2001 I forgot to add, ativan dumbs down a lot of people. After I had taken it for awhile, I had problems with my short term memory and concentration. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 5, 2001 Report Share Posted April 5, 2001 At 06:30 PM 4/5/01 -0400, you wrote: >Does anyone else have a problem with sleeping. I only average >1 to 2 hours if sleep a night. I am scared to try sleep aids. >Anyone have this problem, if so what do you do? I had a sleep study and they found that I had central (not obstructive) sleep apnea. Central sleep apnea happens when the brain sends signals to stop breathing. The sleep study people also indicated that this was often seen in " heart patients. " Sleep apnea causes hypoxia (low blood oxygen) which causes the brain to swell. Could the swelling brain cause problems in the hypothalamus messing up the hormonal breathing/heart rate controls? I have not yet figured out what to do about the sleep apnea but if we can figure out how all these things are related, we might discover a single solution to the whole mechanism. At least that is my game plan. -Dale from Arizona Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 6, 2001 Report Share Posted April 6, 2001 > After reading Trudy's message and your message, Ellen, I am getting freaked > out about taking Ativan (I especially didn't like hearing the " dumbing down " > part -- and as much as I hate to admit it, I think it's true). It's nice to > sleep, but... > > How much were you taking, Ellen? Over what period of time did you wean > yourself off? What was the strength of your very last dose, 1/4mg? or > smaller? Sandy, yahoo's " benzo " group, for people doing withdrawal from this type of med, has a lot of info. In their Files section, two useful things are the faq and the brochure from Hoffman LaRoche. The brochure says cut by about 10% of the original dose each time, and stay at the new level for one week to one month, depending on how you feel in terms of withdrawal effects. There is a general belief in that group that if you go too fast, the effects are not only worse but withdrawal is prolonged. However, I went somewhat faster (7 weeks from 1 mg) because I felt that I could, except once I had to go back up a level and just stay there for another week, as I was having a lot of heart effects. A few tips I learned. Ativan seems to have two sort of time frames associated with it. It drops sharply 6-8 hours after a dose, so it was a big win for me to spread out the dose and take part of it every 8 hours vs. once or twice a day, as the former avoids an increase in physical symptoms. Also, the blood level of it drops in such a way that the withdrawal effects peak on days 5-7 after a cut in dosage, so knowing that helped me get thru that part. Also, there are things you can do to mitigate the withdrawal effects - wrap up warmly if you are freezing, get a quieter alarm clock to avoid some of the hypersensitivity to noise, etc. That said, you may not be dependent on ativan yet. The Hoffman LaRoche brochure says of people who take it for a year, 50% become dependent. Some people get dependent in just a few weeks, though. It can be difficult to cut the dosage in those approximate amounts as the pills are small. However pills as small as 0.5 mg are available, and some generic 0.5 mg pills are larger than others, making cutting them easier. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 6, 2001 Report Share Posted April 6, 2001 Let me put in another plug for walking as an exercise to help with sleep and a general improvement in how I feel both physically and emotionally. I started at 20-30 minutes a day and am at an hour now, which I think is about the max I will go to. It is a very relaxing thing, burns off adrenaline, is good for the heart, you will look more in shape physically, great for the complexion, etc. It also gets me out of the house, so there is less time to mope in terms of worrying about the heart, etc. Instead I get to admire the new spring flowers and chat with the neighbors I meet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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