Ambien vs Hep C

[swfrancs]

Is Ambien proscribed for those with Hep C (type 1b in particular)?

[susan400]

I take Ambien, the regular type.  I've taken the CR in the past, but since it's so expensive and the regular Ambien has a generic form now, it's cheaper on my insurance as far as my co-pay to just take the reg.  I'd like to get off of it, but only get 1-1/2 max of sleep when I don't take it and I need my sleep more than I need to worry about the addiction to Ambien.

Susan

[mremeet]

Ambien is commonly prescribed to people with HCV. But if I were you I'd avoid it like the plague. I was on it for a while a few years ago and I developed a dependency on it (many others do too). It definitely helps you sleep, initially I just took it once in awhile to help me sleep. Then I found I needed it more often than "once in a while" to get to sleep (like almost every day). Then I needed to take more of it than I did initially to get the same effect. Then I started having short term memory problems which started to affect my life. I finally said to hell with it and stopped it cold turkey. Afterwards I couldn't sleep for like 4 days in a row, but eventually I collapsed of exhaustion and later regained my old crappy sleep patterns. After that I concentrated on more common sense methods for getting to sleep, like avoiding caffeine and refined sugars (especially in the afternoon/evening), eating right, exercising, avoiding alcohol (which you shouldn't drink with HCV anyway, obviously) and managing stress better. These things did more to improve sleep patterns than any drug ever did, plus they just plain make you feel good all around. Not as easy as taking a pill, but that's what worked for me.

[NYCMark]

Ambien was prescribed for me both on and off treatment. As mremeet says, it helps for a while, then your body gets used to it and you have to take more of it to get the same effect. (This is the definition of addiction).

I'm currently trying to stop using it by tapering the dose. I break the oblong pill in half, and take only half the dose, and not every night. As mremeet says, there are better ways to get back into good sleeping habits after treatment ends. But on treatment, sleep (for me, anyway) was very tough without an aid such as Ambien.

Mark

[ladywhy]

It stopped working for me so I stopped taking it. A few weeks later I couldn't sleep, took one again and voila!...sweet dreams.

I remember ladybug's dr said after she shared her concerns about addiction while in tx. He said something to this effect, "So..you become addicted to sleep..."

Like the pain meds...the anti-anxiety drugs...we all have to be careful...some of us more than others..
I'm not making light of what you went through mremeet...i think it's a matter of "choosing your poison." I also remember jmjm...finding after a few weeks of riba...that his body eventually adjusted and he slept w/no problem throughout tx. Until recently I had to go into work and w/o some help from the generic ambien...it would have been alot tougher.
y

[cruelworld]

treatment sucks anyway, ive gone cold turkey on all of this (except some weed
in earlier months). i figured the pill addiction problems would cancel the positve effect
and not be worth it. ive survived 55 of 72 weeks and glad i did it this way, its almost over. the bad thing about all this, is that at first, it all works miracles and then it quits working and leaves you addicted.

[merryBe]

for some reason HCV patients have a lot of trouble sleeping.
One reason known is the HCV can produce lower levels of HGH in the pituitary.
the pituitary makes this and other hormones. The HGH actually allows you to get into 3rd and 4th stage sleep as well as repair tissues throughout the body while in deep sleep, which is when 90 percent of your repair goes on.

You can get an IGF-1 test which is an indicstor of how much HGH you have made in the prior 24 hrs.
If this is low, you can try increasing in by excersise and eating things that produce melatonin and tryptophan may help you as well. However, if your pituitary is very low, you can get to an endrocrinologist who may prescribe HGH injections to bring you back to normal sleep and dreaming, and tissue repair.

Unfortunately I was already on the Ambien before getting onto the HGH. Apparently the brain does not shut down as easily when there are "white spots" or masses in the brain, which I also have and can also be caused by HCV, MS and a host of other things.
If you have these "white areas" they are highly active, so even with no stimulants at all in your diet/liquid you can still be cronically unable to sleep or rest, making recovering from this virus nearly impossible.
The only way to determine is you have this is to have an MRI done of your brain.
I have 13 spots most the size of small coins,
so I opted to stay on the ambien which does keep the GABA regulated in the brain without the narcotic  and sedatative effects of the other classes.
So far I've done fine on the higher dose (12 CR, controlled release)....except for a few days when I took the Riba too late and it was keeping me awake. Sometimes I'll still have a rough night, but for the most part I can get enough rest which before I never could.
Anyone who wakes up 40 times a night needs to do something to change the equation.

If you can remember to take your Riba first thing in the AM, and an hour before dinner...at least 5 hours before bedtime you will have a better chance at rest.
Anything you use will have a rebound obviously when you come off it, but the rebound of the sedative type sleep aides is much worse. It's also dangerous to use some classes of sleep aides if you are on other meds, particularly things that control pain or lower respiration. For this reason also ambien appears a safer choice to me.
Hope you get some rest.
MaryB

[wyntre9]

After 14 months on TX and 14 months on ambien, I don't know which I'm addicted to more; the peg or the sleeping pills!

I tried to wean myself off ambien a couple of months ago bit it was a disaster.  At the time, i had just stopped AD's, as well.

i told myself it was more important that I sleep well then being concerned about the ambien so I will continue to take it until the end of treatment, 4 months from now.

Once TX is over, I will deal with weaning off ambien.

In my case, it works great.  I take 10mg per night and I always sleep well.

wyntre

[mremeet]

I agree that during treatment all bets are off and ya gotta do what you gotta do to get some sleep (swfrancs didn't mention he was on treatment though). But I still didn't revert to ambien during treatment, and I also didn't utilize all the positive health advice I described above (like avoiding sugars and exercising). I was a bump on a log during tx, a veritable hermit who ate ice cream and fatty foods all the time. But what I did was use benadryl which is a non-habit forming antihistamine. It definitely makes you sleepy and in fact is an OTC sleep aid. The only problem with it is that it tends to make you tired and zombied out the next day. But I was willing to be zombied out the next day as long as I could get the blessed sleep that evening. Another one I used was a prescription antihistimine called atarax (also called vistirile I believe). If you take enough atarax it'll definitely make you sleepy, plus it helps with anxiety and skin itching (so does benadryl somewhat). And it's known to be fairly liver friendly too (commonly prescribed to HCV-ers). Although like benadryl, atarax zoned me out the next day (even moreso unfortunately). Lastly, I also decided to try lunesta which works pretty good. It didn't seem to have the kick that ambien had, but it did the job. And I never got hooked on it and I never forgot where I put my car keys like I did with ambien ;-) My doctor's pretty conservative and he seemed reasonably comfortable with me taking lunesta too, and there was no big spike in my liver enzymes while taking it so I think it's probably ok.

[wyntre9]

Antihistamines, especially benadryl, do work great for sleep if you haven't been taking prescription strength meds for 15 years!

I agree;  while on TX ya gotta do whatcha gotta do to keep going  ((As long as it's not harmful).

I wish I didn't have to take the ambien but I admit I can't sleep without it and that pretty much fits the description of an addiction.  Without sleep, insignificant things seem to rise to the level of major catastrophes and the riba rage is outta control.  Oh well . . .

At least I'm aware of it and maybe 16 weeks from now I'll be able to think about stopping.

wyn

[mremeet]

Yeah be careful with that stuff, I've spoken with many people who've developed serious dependency problems with ambien. I had a hell of a time coming off of it, and I'm a pretty strong willed person too (for instance I quit smoking 8 years ago cold turkey at the snap of my fingers after puffing away for about 15 years). Another one that was a real nightmare coming off of was Effexxor XR. I've never taken anti-d's prior to my tx and that one was really something to come off of...and I tapered and tapered and tapered my dose too. I can see where someone who had a moderate to serious problem with depression could really be thrown into a tailspin playing around with that one. You hear about these kids that seem to snap and then go on a shooting spree in a highschool or a shopping mall, and then you find out they were all doped up on these types of drugs and stopped taking them. I can see how that can happen, these drugs are serious business. I think big pharma often leads us down the primrose path with many of these drugs if we don't stay informed and look out for our own best interest. I really love those ambien tv commercials too, all these attractive and cheery yuppies waking up in bed smiling and exhuberent with a dreamy soundtrack. What a crock man!

Anyway, since you're still in treatment and have a ways to go you might want to consider giving atarax a try (or maybe lunesta?). I would take up to 75mg daily at times and it would definitely reduce anxiety and make you tired. I've heard that they give it to druggies (100mg is a common dose for a doper) that go into rehab to help bring them down, reduce their agitation and help them sleep. I can see why, it works pretty good, and again is known to be relatively safe and non-habit forming. Plus it alleviates itching if you have that (which I had constantly). The only downside for me was being zoned out the next day, but that's alright the trade-off was worth it, especially since I didn't need to resort to ambien. Never again will I f*ck with ambien! Learned my lesson there. Hope you're tx is going well, take care.

[susan400]

I only can say, that I will one day, start trying again to get off of it, but w/my luck, I'll get weaned off the Ambien and then, be going back on TX and the whole process would be an issue again.  I don't function well on a normal basis even w/the Ambien-I'm lucky if I get 5 hrs. of sleep a night and I'm unable to sleep during the daylight hrs.

Susan

[ladywhy]

When the ambien stopped workin' for me...my NP suggested Lunesta. Since Lunesta doesn't have a generic out...I had to skip it. My prescription plan is $2500 per year. Not too good.....
What I can't fathom is that my insurance was willing to pay out for double Pegasys...yet after 7 wks., declined me on the riba. Incredible...
At the same time.. i'm grateful for the injectible....the cost of these drugs are off the charts.
Thank God for Commitment To Care and Pegassist.

[loosenup]

I was about two weeks into taking 10mg generic Ambien when one morning I woke up with 12 greasy bisquits in my bed.  I had unknowingly baked in the middle of the night.  I have no idea why I would even bake........I don't like cooking when I'm awake.  I told my doctor who prescribed this and after having a good laugh, he told me to cut the ambien in half on a bad night.  So far so good as I haven't woken up to anything weird in my bed.  
Diana

[merryBe]

OK, one ot two biscuits maybe...but twelve....what'd ya have Rachel  Ray over there???
giggle......

I think the brain craves certain fatty acid chains when deprived. Like when my thyroid was low zi kept craving cocomut...which has omega 9's in it...just the acid the body needs to make the hormone. Maybe your brain was teling you you were lacking essential fatty acids.  :  )))))))))

[alagirl]

Unfortunately, I sleepwalk and cook and do other funny things in my sleep on ambien.  With all of the loaded weapons in the house, you can see how it just doesn't seem prudent to tempt fate...