Zyrem - will side effects disapear?

[lctheobald]

So 11 days on zyrem, I 've been titrating up. Right now I'm at 3.5 ml. I feel more tired during the day (started after the first night), extreme muscle pain (especially in my back), bad dreams, sweat like a pig all day long (just dripping and I live in cold WI). I also have dandruff and an itchy scalp. I sleep about 6-7 hours.

Will some of these disappear after time? I've been at 3.5 * 2 for 5 days now and it's getting worse.

Thanks everyone.

Also, what other drugs increase stage 3 & 4 with few side effects?

 

[Otis]

lctheobald,

Welcome. I have a limited experience with Xyrem and didn't have those side effects but problems bridging from previous meds to Xyrem and didn't get to titrated very high before I had to give up.

The best place I've found for Xyrem info is talkaboutsleep.com. The best forum is probably the narcolepsy one but as I recall you should be able to find help in a fibro fourm too. You may want to do some searching there as to what side effects people report and I wouldn't hesitate to post a question to the narcolepsy forum, folks there are friendly and helpful.

As for deep stage sleep(I get none!), the most prescribed med is trazodone, 50-150mg is a typical target dose. With less studies behind them are gabapentin and to a lesser extent Lyrica, as I recall, help with SWS. Side effects are pretty individual but I think Lyrica would be have the highest liklihood of side effects. I've tried them all and I would recommend trazodone if Xyrem doesn't pan out. Just start at 25mg and see how it goes.

I don't know if they've done studies on sleep architecture on them but low doses of trycyclics like amityiptaline are frequently used to help support sleep.

Good luck and let us know how it goes, I'm still experimenting myself.

Otis (sleep med lab rat)

 

[Sasha]

Also, what other drugs increase stage 3 & 4 with few side effects?

Sorry to hear you're feeling so bad, Ictheobald. I haven't had a sleep study yet (will do in a few weeks) but asked the specialist I saw for something that would help improve Stage 3&4 because research shows it's a common problem for us and my sleep was unrefreshing.

Trazadone didn't work for me - made me feel very druggy when I took it at night but took ages to get to sleep and still kept waking up during the night. I'm now on Pregablin (Lyrica) and am fairly pleased with it. No side effects - I just start to feel sleepy fairly soon after taking it, go to bed half an hour or an hour later, and am asleep within 20 mins or so. I might wake up once but lately am sleeping through; I'm getting about 8 hours solid sleep. I don't feel drugged up or anything when I wake.

I was instructed to titrate the dose up from 25mg/night to a max of 100mg/night, giving each stage about a week or so. It takes a while to build so shouldn't be judged on the first night or even few nights. I tried 100mg for one night to see if it helped me not even wake once but I felt bad the next morning so dropped back down to 75mg.

Quite a few people on sleep threads mention having tried something for a night, not noticing it working and stopping. I don't think that's how these drugs work - my neuropsychiatrist who is prescribing this stuff has me try the lower doses for a week or so before moving up a stage. I don't know if a similarly slow titration is recommended for Xyrem - it might be worth checking in case your bad symptoms are a result of over-rapid titration. I don't know anything about Xyrem or have any experience of it.

Good luck!

 

[*GG*]

Not familiar with Xyrem, but I am taking Mitrazapine and it has helped me sleep pretty solidly for the last 2 months or so, knock on wood..