Posted by med_empowered on September 23, 2008, at 20:54:21
In reply to Need opinion of the med experts here, posted by greywolf on September 23, 2008, at 18:52:01
hey..I'm not an expert, but I'll throw out some ideas...
1) drop the seroquel and get an actual sleeping pill. The costs will be lower and you'll probably have fewer side effects. You could try Lunesta, Ambien, Rozerem, Trazadone, Restoril, ProSom, more xanax at night, hydroxyzine...the list goes on and on.
2) Will your insurance over xanax xr? I've never taken it myself, but it seems to me that taking xanax xr a couple times daily at an equivalent or slightly higher dose might give you more even coverage so at the very least you won't experience anxiety b/c of mini-withdrawal from your last xanax dose.
3) Is the Abilify helping you? All antipsychotics can raise anxiety levels; abilify in particular tends to cause akathisia and can cause agitation, possibly b/c of the partial dopamine agonism. Anyway...my shrink claims that *higher* abilify doses are more "soothing" (or at least...less crazy-making). I was on 20mgs/day for a while and although I didn't exactly love the abilify, I didn't have any EPS, akathisia, or increased anxiety.
If you've had EPS or akathisia I would think upping the Abilify dose would be bad news, but...I'm not your doctor. Lowering/eliminating the Abilify might also help.3) I don't really know anything about Deplin, but have you tried Niacinamide? Its like niacin, without the flush and nausea; I take 4 grams daily to help with my "issues". It kind of acts like a natural tranquilizer, so it might potentiate your xanax.
4) Is increasing the Remeron an option? I think I've read about people taking 45-60mgs/day.
poster:med_empowered
thread:853682
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20080915/msgs/853712.html