New (very new) medication trial

[stephbg]

Tonight I stop taking Stilnox (sleeping pill) and start taking 25mg Valdoxan (agomelatine, a melatonin moderator). In theory I won't need the Stilnox if the Valdoxan does its job of making me All Better. I'm told to expect withdrawal effects from the Stilnox, and potentially interesting side effects from the Valdoxan. I'm either up for a few days of insomnia, or an unspecified interval of nightmares and nausea. Or some interesting combination of the two until the dosage (or indeed abandonment of the trial) is sorted. That's a lot of ors. Having accidentally skipped the odd Stilnox I've a fair idea of what to expect from the first day of withdrawal, but not much clue after that. Well, it's not like I'm going anywhere.

Before I forget, I'm allowed to titrate up another half a pill if I deem it necessary.

Having warned Husband that I might have nightmares of the deep sleep cannot move cannot scream variety, he asked "Shall I put the knives by the bed?" This struck me as a very bad idea, unless he meant them for self defence (there's an ever-so-tiny possibility of a psychotic break). No, the knives were for me, I *think* for me to slay the monsters in my nightmares. Er, thanks honey. I will try very hard not to murder my beloved.

Valdoxan has only been available in Australia since September 2010, and there's not a huge amount of human clinical data available. A quick look at the stats seems to indicate that it helps about half the depressed cats in about half of the studies, so I'm hoping to regain my interest in chasing mice.

Ah hope, hello again. I'm not pinning my hopes on the short term--no heavy machinery for me for the rest of the financial year--but it's inevitable I should feel hopeful to the point of fantsies of a life completely regained. It's a process I think I have to work through, so I'll enjoy the idea of All The Things I'll Be Able To Do for a while, then settle to whatever life actually delivers. Whatever this stuff does it apparently works relatively quickly, so it should be a matter of weeks not months to get my answer.

Apologies in advance, for I might not be quite in control of my behaviour for a while. Wish me luck, I'm more than a bit scared :-(

Comments

[redbraids.livejournal.com]

Fingers crossed!

[kremmen.livejournal.com]

Sounds like it's worth trying somethine new. Stilnox looks like evil stuff, especially when taken for more than a short time.

[lauredhel.livejournal.com]

I'm behind the times here - does agomelatine have particular clinical advantages over taking melatonin itself? It looks horribly expensive, compared to importing melatonin from good US online pharmacies.

For what it's worth, once gabapentin was controlling my sleep dysfunction, I had no trouble at all going off Stilnox, despite having been on it every night for years. It's not necessarily particularly addictive or sinister.