Nightmares...caused by meds?

I am struggling with depression and GAD after a blessed3 year remission. Suddenly I am having horrible nightmares not just once in a while, but several times in a night. I'm on Effexor XR, Risperdal, Ativan, and Ambien CR for sleep. Could these meds be causing the nightmares, or are these dreams just indications that I need more meds? The dreams are about real life events, horrific, and recurrent. What do you think?

I too am on many meds. Psych and medical. I suffer Horrific nightmares as well. It's really negatively impacting my life. I usually dream that I am in hell. I am certain that it is from the meds. IMO

There have been cases of nightmares reported with the discontinuation of Effexor.

There have been abnormal dreams reported in patients taking Effexor for major depressive disorder (7% of patients studied). 3% of patients studied with generalized anxiety disorder reported abnormal dreams and 4% of patients studied with social anxiety reported abnormal dreams.

I got this information from the Effexor Prescribing Info.

i've had a lot of trouble with dreams and nightmares on Psych Meds........i dream now, on trazie (for sleep), and i hate the dreams.......hate them.......

I'm pretty sure Ambien can do a lot of bad things. I think that "vivid" dreams are a side effect from it, so I'm sure that could contribute to nightmares, too. I have bad sleeping problems, so I have taken sleeping pills a lot, and I don't like ambien at all.

Ambien gives me vivid nightmares.

frightened,

i believe that the meds could surely be causing, or enhancing (in a bad way) the nightmares. heck, when i take something as simple as melatonin, i have 6 or 7 vivid, intense, frightening dreams. i hope things eventually work out for the better.

mel

I take Ambien CR, Trazodone, Risperdal, and Klonopin to sleep, and I don't have any nightmares. I don't think I really even have any dreams.

This thread reminds me of when I was once on a lot of meds at one time and I use to wake up to seeing 6 foot Banana Spiders on me, the bed and all over the walls - talk about FEAR.

..... I am just glad that my dear old hubby didn't loose any more hair than necessary when I would wake up screaming my head off - scared him to death some times.

When I was on Risperdal I had nightmares for a while, also dreams in general seemed more intense than usual. The nightmares seemed to subside after about a week though?

I've had plenty of nightmares from drugs that were not compatible with me and even worse from withdrawing from a drug.

i was on risperdal once years ago, and it gave me nightmares.