# tricyclic antidepressants



## jeanie82 (Nov 6, 2006)

I posted last week about my insomnia - I am still not sleeping, in fact its getting worse although I have increased to taking 1.5mg of Xanax before bed. My psychiatrists recommended tricyclic antidepressants to help me sleep. Any one know anything about them? dothiepin hydrochloride (Prothiaden?, Thaden?) in particular?


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## medo (Dec 19, 2006)

jeanie82 said:


> I posted last week about my insomnia - I am still not sleeping, in fact its getting worse although I have increased to taking 1.5mg of Xanax before bed. My psychiatrists recommended tricyclic antidepressants to help me sleep. Any one know anything about them? dothiepin hydrochloride (Prothiaden?, Thaden?) in particular?


you will only know once you try one. works different for everyone


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## Guest (Mar 5, 2007)

I was on clomipramine for a lil bit, it deff helped me sleep, but the side effects were too unbearable. Sweating/Constipation, it was horrible, but sometimes the benefits outweigh the side effects, couldn't hurt.


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## comfortably numb (Mar 6, 2006)

Ive never been on dothiepin i dont even know if we have that one here in canada but i was on amitriptyline which is another old school tricyclic anti-depressant. It worked great for insomnia and depression actually until it set my bipolar off into rapid cycling mode.

If it's anything like amitriptyline it should help you sleep. After taking amitriptyline i could hardly stay awake even if i wanted to. It's a knock out drug for sure and totally blows any benzodiazepine out of the water for insomnia. In fact i found it to be much more sedating then seroquel even.

I couldnt find shag all info on dothiepin im afraid. I didnt look really hard but according to wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dosulepin_hydrochloride it seem's to be abit milder then amitriptyline for treating depression. But it has the same side effect's such as drowsiness which is what your looking for.

Be warned though that the dry mouth caused by these drug's can be nasty and some people get a next day hangover effect. I never got any side effect's from it at all except dry mouth and eventually the aggravation of my bipolar but you dont have to worry about the last one.


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## Guest (Mar 6, 2007)

yea, i'll second the dry mouth, it's like you have frigen cotton balls in there 24/7


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## mickelvine (Mar 26, 2008)

Antidepressants are the best stimulus in the process to empower depressed people to have positive thinking and raise themselves esteem, because at the beginning it is quite difficult to think about and do this. Taking anti-depressants helps a lot of people to shift their moods and then these medications give them the possibility to work on other therapies.
http://www.mydepressionmedication.com/tricyclic-antidepressants


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## Strange_Visitor (Apr 18, 2008)

Sorry I'm 6 weeks late to this thread but I only joined the forum recently.

I've had anxiety (with DR) for 30 years and my worst symptom is insomnia, so I've tried lots of different medications in that time.

Dosulepin (called dothiepin in some countries) worked fine for me, although the sleepiness is a side effect which wears off after a few weeks. I found taking one every week when I needed helped me.

I've also heard good things about amitriptaline in that regard.

I've tried 3 different SSRI's, but they made the insomnia worse if anything.

There are 2 anti-depressants which are neither SSRI's or TCA's, which have a soporific side effect: trazodone and mirtazapine. Both helped me sleep, but I settled on the latter (branded Zispin in UK, Remeron in US). I've been taking this drug nightly for over a year and it helps me sleep just as much now, as it did on the first day. It does give me a dizzy / fuzzy head though, but side-effects differ from person to person of course. It's worth it for me, though, to get the sleep I need.

Mark


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