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bonez
Sea Gull
Joined: Dec 14, 2008
Age: 19
Posts: 248
Location: Maryland
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 Posted: Thu Nov 12, 2009 2:50 pm Post subject: clonidine for insomnia? |
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| my doctor put me on clonidine (a medication that lowers your blood pressure) for insomnia?? did anybody ever hear of such a thing? how will a blood pressure medication help me fall asleep? |
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Callista
Phoenix
Joined: Feb 04, 2006
Age: 27
Posts: 4253
Location: Central USA
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| Posted: Thu Nov 12, 2009 4:10 pm Post subject: |
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http://www.rxlist.com/catapres-drug.htm
http://www.minddisorders.com/Br-Del/Clonidine.html
Seems like it probably reduces your sympathetic nervous system's base level, so your "alert level" decreases. The doctor's basically using it for its side effects, which include drowsiness... kind of the way a doctor will prescribe allergy medicine (antihistamines) as a mild sleep aid, because the side-effect of drowsiness is so common with those.
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visagrunt
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Age: 42
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Location: Vancouver, BC
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| Posted: Thu Nov 12, 2009 6:37 pm Post subject: |
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This is what's called an, "off label" use of a drug. While the drug is primarily designed for one function, it has a beneficial side effect that can be used to treat other disorders, without creating other problems.
Specific sleep medications often carry significant risk of dependency. If you insomnia can be combatted with a nudge from the off-label use of a non-habit forming drug, it is much better for you in the long run.
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leejosepho
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Joined: Sep 15, 2009
Age: 59
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| Posted: Thu Nov 12, 2009 6:56 pm Post subject: |
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I take a lot of Clonidine for my morbid hypertension, and .2 mg or more in one dose can sometimes make me drowsy. If you are only going to be taking it once per day, it might do just fine for you. However, Clonidine can also cause dry mouth and constipation. The good thing about Clonidine, however, is that it is not going to cause you any actual harm. Virtually anybody can take it quite safely.
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Maggiedoll
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Age: 25
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| Posted: Thu Nov 12, 2009 8:32 pm Post subject: |
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I was on a blood pressure medication for anxiety for awhile.. I don't think it really helped much.
Benadryl is, always has been, and probably always will be the strongest, most sure-fire sleeping pill.
For milder insomnia, better to go with herbal tea (like the sleepytime teas with some combination of chamomile and Valerian,) melatonin, and/or anything with tryptophan in it. (turkey and warm milk are both good for tryptophan. I guess cold milk would be too.. The warmness is probably more a relaxation thing.)
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Apple_in_my_Eye
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Age: 41
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Location: Youessae, on the Pacific side
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| Posted: Fri Nov 13, 2009 3:35 pm Post subject: |
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Drugs are just chemicals and what they do doesn't necessarily cleanly map to functions like sleep, blood pressure, pain relief, etc. They all basically do a bunch of things at once, just one or two or three those things more strongly than the others.
Ie Amantadine was originally used to treat influenza, but is now more commonly used to treat Parkinson's disease.
Neurontin was developed as an adjunct to anti-seizure meds, but also works really well at treating neuropathic pain.
MAOI drugs were originally used to treat tuberculosis, but later were used as anti-depressants.
I was briefly on clonidine, and found it very sedating (which was not why I was taking it, so had to stop).
IIRC at least 50% of all prescriptions are written for "off label" use. The reason (I've heard) is because the FDA testing process for getting a drug approved is hugely expensive, so the drug companies only want to do it once for each drug -- since they know doctors can prescribe it for other reasons later, as they are discovered, without further FDA approval. |
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Maggiedoll
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| Posted: Fri Nov 13, 2009 3:59 pm Post subject: |
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| Apple_in_my_Eye wrote: | | IIRC at least 50% of all prescriptions are written for "off label" use. The reason (I've heard) is because the FDA testing process for getting a drug approved is hugely expensive, so the drug companies only want to do it once for each drug -- since they know doctors can prescribe it for other reasons later, as they are discovered, without further FDA approval. |
Not quite.. Pfizer was recently fined $2.3 billion for activity promoting off-label usage of their drugs.
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Apple_in_my_Eye
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| Posted: Fri Nov 13, 2009 4:27 pm Post subject: |
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| Maggiedoll wrote: | | Apple_in_my_Eye wrote: | | IIRC at least 50% of all prescriptions are written for "off label" use. The reason (I've heard) is because the FDA testing process for getting a drug approved is hugely expensive, so the drug companies only want to do it once for each drug -- since they know doctors can prescribe it for other reasons later, as they are discovered, without further FDA approval. |
Not quite.. Pfizer was recently fined $2.3 billion for activity promoting off-label usage of their drugs. |
Prescribing by physicians for off-label use is 100% legal and common. Promoting or marketing off-label use of a drug to doctors by a drug company is illegal.
That was Pfizer's mistake -- they knew doctors could and would (legally) prescribe off-label if they 'sold' them hard enough. If it were about the principle of off-label prescribing, then the prescribing doctors would've been fined.
http://commonlaw.findlaw.com/2009/09/pfizers-offlabel-marketing-of-bextra-draws-record-breaking-fines.html
| Quote: | When a drug maker applies for FDA approval of a drug, it must specify the uses for which it seeks approval. Drug companies are only allowed to promote the drug for uses approved by the FDA. If a use is not specified in the approval application, or is specifically refused by the FDA, then it is an "off-label" use. Promoting the drug at dosages higher than that approved by the FDA also constitutes off-label promotion.
A doctor may still prescribe the drug for an off-label use, but marketing the drug for such a use is forbidden.
According to the plea agreement in the case of Pfizer and the anti-inflammatory drug Bextra, Pfizer was actually marketing the drug for off-label uses which the FDA specifically denied approval due to safety concerns. |
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