[Faffou]

Hi I m suffering from bipolar-disorder since 15 years with chronic insomnia. I m under seroquel 450 and lamictal 200 mg plus melatonin and nozinan. Not bad but still it is not that good. I only get sleep with medication. Plaase help me having other alternative

Hi Faffou! Welcome to the bipolar forum!

I'm sorry to read that your current medication mix is not producing the results you really aim for. Have you talked to your psychiatrist about that?

Based in what you wrote, am I correct in thinking that your current meds do help you sleep after years of insomnia? If so, that is a good thing, but if your moods or side effects are still bothering you, again do ask your pdoc to work towards an improved situation. Sometimes they help obtain an improvement, but not a sufficient one, and then "sit on it", so to speak. Sometimes you have to pressure them more.

I only really suffered from insomnia when manic, in the past. But my mania is really only kept at bay with medications. In my case, I will likely stay on medications long-term or forever. I'm OK with that, but continue to work to find the best med situation. Right now, if I skipped my Seroquel XR, I would barely sleep. I have grown to depend on it, for sure.

[Phoenix_1]

Originally Posted by Faffou

Hi I m suffering from bipolar-disorder since 15 years with chronic insomnia. I m under seroquel 450 and lamictal 200 mg plus melatonin and nozinan. Not bad but still it is not that good. I only get sleep with medication. Plaase help me having other alternative

I've had insomnia since I was 13. The only thing that puts me to sleep is a combo of 100 mg Seroquel, 1 mg klonopin, and 20 mg Buspar. I just got off Seroquel 300 XRT because it made me feel like a zombie. I also take 200 mg lamotrigine. This is all at bedtime so it does help. My pdoc is taking away the Seroquel and I'm starting Abilify. I've haven't been so wide awake in the daytime since my last hypomania in 2017. I'm afraid that without the Seroquel at bedtime that I won't sleep at all.

[Phoenix_1]

Faffou, I'm curious. How much nozinan do you take? 20 years ago I took 5 mg at bedtime and it worked great for my insomnia. They don't make the 5 mg in Canada anymore, so in 2016 my pdoc prescribed 25 mg. I ended up in the hospital from it 3 days before Christmas. It took weeks for my brain to unscramble. I couldn't even make a complete sentence. I guess my tolerance is really low.