medication

[dobbiemom]

Iam new :0)   I was wondering if anyone has heard of a dr prescribing 2--12.5 mg ambien cr a night?

I also take benadryl with it every night.   Is that ok     ?????

[Suri123]

Hi, how are you, hope you are feeling better. Pls update if you have somtihing to share so. Take care.

[Suri123]

Hi, generally physician decides dose and duration of drug on severity of symptoms and body weigt. you need to ask your doctor for clarification. Bye.

[kimmieb]

Wow, that DOES sound unpleasant.  I didn't personally experience ANY bad or unusual side effects.  The stuff just didn't work for me -- it didn't help me sleep any better (or worse) than all of the other stuff I'd taken.  Glad to hear you got to the bottom of your symptoms quickly thought, before things might have gotten out of control and who knows what might have happened to you, your body, or anyone else.  Good for you for staying on top of things.  That's what we have to do -- we have to be completely responsible for reading EVERYTHING and staying on top of any medication we put into our bodies -- over the counter or otherwise.  

[LadyLeo]

I have a long history of insomnia (goes back to childhood) I was prescribed every sleeping med ever made and became *horribly* addicted to these pills. Getting off was a 'total' nightmare! Two and a bit years after my last sleeping tablet, a routine doctors visit for a bad flu and bronchitis saw me walk off with a prescription for Ambien, antibiotics and a cough syrup. I thought I knew all the names of sleeping meds so did not ask.
For the first two nights I slept like a bomb. It was wonderful or so I thought. I started becoming very short tempered. I became very jittery and mean to people I had never said one bad word to. I started feeling very 'antsy' during the day as if I had bugs crawling over my scalp and under the skin of my arms and legs. I felt very, very weepy all day long. On the 8th day after having started the Ambien CR a Dr friend of my daughter when I described my strange behavior asked if I might be taking any of the Z-class sleeping med's. She was spot on! I threw away the balance and within two days was back to my normal, mellow, pleasant self.
Just *my* personal experience. Ambien might work well for some  - for me it had some horrible, scary side-effects.

[kimmieb]

Hello.  I did not have luck with the Ambien CR (nor with the "regular" ambien).  They just don't work for me.  Since I have trouble both falling asleep AND staying asleep (or falling back to sleep once I wake up at night), I was prescribed the CR, hoping the controlled release would help me in that way.  Didn't work though.  I was disappointed.  None of those true sleep meds have worked for me.  I guess maybe I'm not the only one, huh?  The only medication I've had any luck with for sleep has been lorazepam, and I didn't realize at the time what a bad medicine that is to become dependent upon.  I'm really stuck (even the lorazepam, after years of use, has run its course and is only giving me 4 hours now), although I am now seeing a doctor who's trying to help me work through all of this.....

Anyway, just wanted to share with you my CR experience.  Sorry it's taken me so long to get back to respond.

[Abhijeet Deshmukh, MD]

Hello kimmieb.

You are correct. I somehow missed the "cr" written in the first post. A dose of 25 every night is a bit on the higher side.

What is your experience of Ambien CR ? I have mixed reports from my patients.

Regards

[kimmieb]

Ambien CR does come in 12.5 mg -- I have some.  the regular ambien does not, but ambien CR does.  just clarification.

[Abhijeet Deshmukh, MD]

Hello.

Ambien comes in 5mg and 10mg strengths. The doctor writing 12.5mg must be thinking of something else. Have you asked him about the dose ?

Regards

[Sam888]

Have you researched the side effects of Ambien?