littlewren2011
29-10-11, 17:27
Hi,
I'm new here and wondered if someone could possibly give me some advice please?
Please bear with me while I tell you a bit about my history.
I have been a bad sleeper since my mid 20's when I was going through a bad divorce and was prescribed two lots of sleeping tablets to get me through. This continued over the years with various changes to the prescriptions. I was then put on Tranxene, which I managed to stop as soon as I fell pregnant. However, when my daughter was 10 weeks old, I was taken back into hospital for retained placenta (!) and as a result found I couldn't sleep again. The doctor prescribed mild post natal depression, although I wasn't depressed, and put me on antidepressants for a couple of months. I was so spaced out that I stopped them and he put me on Nitrazepam.
This has continued over the years, but of course your body gets used to sleeping tablets, so a couple of times the Nitrazepam was changed, but with no success, so I went back to it again.
Then.....I've had M.E. for a long time and my then GP told me that Dothiepin (Dosulepin) might help with some of the muscle and joint pain. He said that Nitrazepam was being taken off the market anyway - which I later found to be not true - so I might as well swap over to Dothiepin. I weaned myself off the Nitrazepam and onto 75mg Dothiepin over a few months but couldn't sleep again - & it didn't help the M.E. at all. Back I went, to a different doctor, and asked if I could try and stop the Dothiepin and just keep on the 5mg of Nitrazepam, which he agreed to.
I managed to cut down to 25mg Dothiepin, and still take 5mg Nitrazepam but can't cut the Dothiepin out.
My GP suggested cutting out Dothiepin every other night and on that night take One and a half Nitrazepam - therefore 7 1/2 mg. I did that last night for the first time. I didn't sleep well but as well as that I felt horrible and I don't know if it's because I took half a tablet more of Nitrazepam or whether it was because I didn't take the Dothiepin.
I have a feeling it was the extra Nitrazepam, because I have missed out a Dothiepin in the past a couple of times when I had to have a minor op, so I went to bed without taking anything (and didn't sleep) but I didn't feel so blooming awful.
If anyone is still awake after my long post (sorry!) do you have any suggestions please?
My first aim is to come off the Dothiepin completely and then at some point stop the Nitrazepam, but it's the Dothiepin that's the problem. Because it's in a capsule, you can't reduce the dose.
So sorry again for the long post and hope to hear from someone soon.
Many thanks in advance,
Carrie
I'm new here and wondered if someone could possibly give me some advice please?
Please bear with me while I tell you a bit about my history.
I have been a bad sleeper since my mid 20's when I was going through a bad divorce and was prescribed two lots of sleeping tablets to get me through. This continued over the years with various changes to the prescriptions. I was then put on Tranxene, which I managed to stop as soon as I fell pregnant. However, when my daughter was 10 weeks old, I was taken back into hospital for retained placenta (!) and as a result found I couldn't sleep again. The doctor prescribed mild post natal depression, although I wasn't depressed, and put me on antidepressants for a couple of months. I was so spaced out that I stopped them and he put me on Nitrazepam.
This has continued over the years, but of course your body gets used to sleeping tablets, so a couple of times the Nitrazepam was changed, but with no success, so I went back to it again.
Then.....I've had M.E. for a long time and my then GP told me that Dothiepin (Dosulepin) might help with some of the muscle and joint pain. He said that Nitrazepam was being taken off the market anyway - which I later found to be not true - so I might as well swap over to Dothiepin. I weaned myself off the Nitrazepam and onto 75mg Dothiepin over a few months but couldn't sleep again - & it didn't help the M.E. at all. Back I went, to a different doctor, and asked if I could try and stop the Dothiepin and just keep on the 5mg of Nitrazepam, which he agreed to.
I managed to cut down to 25mg Dothiepin, and still take 5mg Nitrazepam but can't cut the Dothiepin out.
My GP suggested cutting out Dothiepin every other night and on that night take One and a half Nitrazepam - therefore 7 1/2 mg. I did that last night for the first time. I didn't sleep well but as well as that I felt horrible and I don't know if it's because I took half a tablet more of Nitrazepam or whether it was because I didn't take the Dothiepin.
I have a feeling it was the extra Nitrazepam, because I have missed out a Dothiepin in the past a couple of times when I had to have a minor op, so I went to bed without taking anything (and didn't sleep) but I didn't feel so blooming awful.
If anyone is still awake after my long post (sorry!) do you have any suggestions please?
My first aim is to come off the Dothiepin completely and then at some point stop the Nitrazepam, but it's the Dothiepin that's the problem. Because it's in a capsule, you can't reduce the dose.
So sorry again for the long post and hope to hear from someone soon.
Many thanks in advance,
Carrie