Can ambien cause depression?

I haven't been able to sleep and my dr gave me two weeks of ambien 10mg to try as needed to see if it helps. I took it three times and I feel depressed. I wasn't in a depressed state prior to this. However, I understand this could just be a coincidence considering I am bipolar and depression comes on unexpectedly. So my question is could the ambien have triggered this? I don't see it as any side effects. It worked to help me sleep but now bc I'm having these obsessive thoughts it's causing this I'm afraid to take it. Thank you.

It can. I would skip a night or two and see if your mood changes, hopefully you will be able to get some sleep with out taking it.

I don't have that side effect from my ambien but we are all different. With the ambien I am able to sleep and that helps my mood a lot.

Yeah it would seem getting sleep would help your mood. Never heard of that side effect for ambien but I guess it's possible. Everyone reacts to meds differently.

I have taken it every night for the last 3 years. I can't sleep without it.
I don't think it has done anything but kept me from losing sleep which from going manic.

Hang in there THE16THDOCTOR

I haven't personally taken Ambien, no, so I can't really comment on that particular medication and sleep.

For me, just on a personal side note, it usually takes a bit longer to reach some kind of "stability" when trying a new med - or maybe the term I'm looking for is "noticable effect" - pending, of course, which new med I am being put on.

I would be very scared to have it in the house when I was depressed ..

A reaction to Ambien/Zolpidem cost me close to a year, barely functioning in a severe fog. An egotistical psych bombed me right out of hospital, and wouldn't listen to me about the terrible shape I was in until I fired his sorry azz. In the meantime I couldn't drive for 9mos, lost 40lbs, was circling my dining room table with my hands in my hair cursing because I didn't know what I was doing. I would leave the house with Wifey to go out to eat, and would have to have her take me back home because my anxiety was so high...and that was the first time I had ever felt anxiety in 58 years. At one point I was in such bad shape I asked him if I were dying.

So I ran him off...found a nice female psych, and together we detoxed me...then started me back up on a lot fewer meds then that jerk had me on...and that's still the med combo I'm on 3+yrs later. Through this process we determined the Zolpidem was the culprit. Although it helps many, Ambien is a dangerous drug.

Strange reaction, Chickenkicker. Never heard such a story.

any thing is possible, but that has not happened to me. I have done things I don't remember doing, which is more common then what your describing. Perhaps some thing else was weighing in on your mind? I love ambien. but my pdoc doesn't want me taking it and klonopin. I would be careful with ambien it is a hypnotic and you should only take it just minutes before you go to bed. Otherwise strange things can happen. People have even driven off in their car and not remember it. Or went on walks, or did and said things they didn't remember doing.

I have to be careful when I wake up to go pee in the middle of the night. I get stumbling

I've driven my car in an ambien blackout. I'm not entirely sure where I drove or why but my car was parked very poorly the next day and I had the faintest memories of driving near my college the night before. Pretty freaky. That's not the whole story but I don't have time to type the rest. To put it briefly I had a severe psychotic reaction to ambien.

that explains a lot.. if I take it and go straight to bed it works, although it does not keep me asleep. But if I stay awake a while it appears to have no sleepy effect on me at all, it even seems stimulating.... I quit taking it by the way ...

The rest of the story is that I took one ambien and thought I was going to bed but blacked out and was kind of awake and took another ambien then was still up then took another and another and another without knowing it. I think I took like 90 mg. And then I remember trying to get into my bedroom but these weird spider webs that were really strong were blocking my door so i couldn't get in (I think in reality I was pulling instead of pushing. So i went around the apartment looking for my roommate to ask him what was up with the spider webs (I was completely psychotic at this point) but I couldn't find him and I think that's when I took the drive. Thank goodness I didn't crash. Then my boyfriend told me the next day that he got a call from my roommate that night and that my roommate found me wandering around the parking lot and brought me in and gave me some water and found his number in my phone and called him. I don't remember that part at all. I was fine the next day but it was a scary ordeal. It can be a powerful drug! Definitely only take it when you're about to hit the pillow!

Woah, Risu...there'a lot of those stories about Ambien out there like people getting ready for work, dropping kids off at school and being at work for an hour or two and THEN they wake up.

Funny the first couple of times I took it, I wasn't prepared how fast it worked. Was told to take it close to bedtime, so I did. Then I went in and took my meds, visited the bathroom, locked the doors...and headed downstairs. Halfway down is where things get cloudy. I stumbled over the landing and cleared everything off the walls on my way to the bedroom, where I fell on the floor. 110b Wifey tries to get my load off the floor into the bed...and finally got it done. The next day I learned I broke her Kitty Kat clock, and I was in deep dark do do.

been there and got two shirts ...

I have been on ambien for 4 yrs. I know way too long....I am surely addicted to it and flip when I get close to empty. I am positive I have forgotten how to fall asleep without it. Be careful. I haven't driven, but I have eaten just grossly out of the jar while standing front of the fridge. To hear it told by my adult son - it was disgusting. How embarrasing. I have had colon surgery and have to wear adult diapers - are you getting a visual? I wanted to die the next day...