Suicide Warning

@ OP - You were prescribed what you were because of what you reported as being the cause of the disruption of your sleep. If you told your doc that you can't sleep because you keep thinking about all the problems that you having in life, the doc is going to assume that its related to anxiety and depression and prescribe you a medicinal sleep aid.

If it really is that you don't go to sleep at a consistent bed time, then your sleep patterns just may be out of whack and came be adjusted with melatonin. It really depends on what your sleep disorder is. Do some research, call your doctor, and reevaluate the situation before you decide what to do.

Opinions from armchair internet "doctors" aren't going to be especially helpful.

I wouldn't sweat it too much. The prescribed level for treating other ailments than depression, ie sleep problems, is more than likely far lower than the dosage used to treat depression. I take a very low dose of an older antidepressant for a hearing problem. Weird huh? Alot of pharms are used to treat conditions other than the original intended use.

As far the "suicide warning"? Just another case of CYA from BIG PHARMA. The listed side effects on all meds are so long and diverse, that they are ridiculous. Another "cry wolf" scenario. Make your own decision, but don't dismiss the treatment out of hand based on the data sheets contained with the medicine or the fact that it is a low dosage anti-depressant. If you trust your doc, tell her about your concerns. If not, find a new doc.

@ OP - You were prescribed what you were because of what you reported as being the cause of the disruption of your sleep. If you told your doc that you can't sleep because you keep thinking about all the problems that you having in life, the doc is going to assume that its related to anxiety and depression and prescribe you a medicinal sleep aid.

If it really is that you don't go to sleep at a consistent bed time, then your sleep patterns just may be out of whack and came be adjusted with melatonin. It really depends on what your sleep disorder is. Do some research, call your doctor, and reevaluate the situation before you decide what to do.

Opinions from armchair internet "doctors" aren't going to be especially helpful.

This is a good post.

The best advice for the OP is to ignore absolutely everyone in this thread, and ask the doctor why he prescribed that medication.

Yeah, except for the grammar and typos. LOL! :blushing:

Although using medication for "off label" purposes is common, you definitely have to watch it. I had a ear, nose and throat specialist put my 1 year old son on children's Claritin to help with ear infections. I questioned this and he explained to me that sinus congestion (which my son often gets) directly affects the eustachian tubes in the ears and can cause ear infections....so treating the sinus problems would prevent the ear infections. This made perfect sense to me so I began the treatment. One week later I'm bawling my eyes out because my usually sweet and playful baby was angry, mean, crying, screaming, hitting, kicking, biting etc. I was pulling my hair out trying to figure out what was wrong with him. Then it dawned on me....the Claritin! It was the only thing I had changed in the last week. I started researching side effects and found out that depression, moodiness, rage, insomnia, and night terrors were all uncommon but possible side effects...ESPECIALLY IN CHILDREN!!! Ugh, I was sooooo upset that I had been giving my poor baby this medicine that was doing this to him. I stopped immediately, and the very next day I had my sweet baby back. He ended up having to get tubes put in his ears to prevent the ear infections but what that medicine was doing to him was not worth it! Granted, they were rare side effects that he was experiencing and everyone is different, but just be careful.

Many drugs have different uses. The best thing to do is talk to your doctor about your concerns surrounding the medicine and request that she try a Rx sleep aide instead.

But, as I said, many drugs are primarily used for one ailment but then have been found to remedy others as well. For example, I struggled with daily migraines for three months. Pain killers wouldn't help, migraine Rx's wouldn't help, a shot of Toridol in my *kitten* wasn't effective either.
I had an MRI done, a CT scan, a spinal tap: results were A OK.
Then, my neurologist prescribed me Topamax. It was an anti convulsant, primarily, but was found to be effective in treating chronic migraines.

A side story: that med DID work. My migraines were practically gone once I was at 50mg in the morning/100mg at night. But, at the highest dose, I was having terrible mood swings and dealing with an all-out hormonal imbalance (it had been progressing for some time, as the doses kept rising, so did the severity of it all). I was a wreck.
I also had constant bloodshoot eyes and a red line going horizontally across each eye. It wouldn't go away for the most part.
I ended up weaning off of those meds and am now mood swing free and, 75% of the time, also migraine free.
Despite my side effects, the medicine did help and, imo, seemed to have fixed something in my brain. Or else I'd again be having those daily migraines.

I have had severe bouts of migraines too, nothing helped. Laid in urgent care for hours with all the different migraine treatments given. Nasal Imitrex I found to be my best fix. I have used nothing but peppermint oil on my temples and taking a few deep breaths of it with my migraines for many years now. I suggest getting a bottle of peppermint essential oil and keeping it on hand if you get another migraine, works for headaches too.

Thank you for the advice ^-^ I'll keep that in mind about the peppermint oil.
At the moment, I'm trying a gluten free diet for the long run, hoping it'll clear up some problems, mainly the mysterious eczema-like rashes on my skin that haven't had any improvement since being prescribed steroid creams and cortizone creams by two different doctors.
At the moment, though, I've realized, I never was lactose intolerant. So, that's one benefit of starting to eliminate gluten completely from my diet.

I wasn't comfortable with the idea of using a steroid cream every day, longterm, anyway. ><

they do get benefits from drug companies for this type of thing.

Oh yeah? You sure about that?

The amount of ignorance and BS in this thread is horrifying. People seem to pretty much believe anything they want to believe.

Unfortunately many people seek out information that bolsters whatever fear they've decided to have, while avoiding information that would show that the fear is either completely invalid or disproportionate to the situation. Sigh.

Drug reps leave gifts, buy meals for Dr offices, and all kinds of things just so the doctor will prescribe their brand of pharmaceuticals. That's for all their products, not just the latest and greatest. Even if the product has gone generic, the company that created the formula gets a portion of the sales for all generics for up to 7 years after the generic has been authorized. This is a pretty common practice with the medical community and Big Pharma.

Thank you for illustrating my point. Free meal = doctors in thrall to a drug company. Yup. That's completely reasonable. :laugh:

Well if someone selling anything bought you lunch, wouldn't you be more inclined to recommend their product to your friends, family members, and co-workers. Same difference.

No. That is just silly. I can't imagine a rational person being so easily influenced. The only way that would work would be if the product in question was the food itself.

Okay... well not everyone in the world is just like you. It must be nice to see the world with rose-colored glasses, but the fact of the matter is that doctors are human. And humans develop biases even if they don't realize it. Sales reps go out of their way to build relationships with doctors so that doctors will be more inclined to prescribe their product over a competitors. That is how the industry works. Sure, it sounds a bit malignant, but that is how its always been.

Rationality and logic are the polar opposite of rose-colored glasses. The use of meals and gifts of cake or the like is meant to get the drug rep's foot in the door. The value of these gifts is severely limited, specifically to limit undue influence. The drug rep gets the prescriber's ear long enough to pitch the new drug. The doc gets free samples to hand out to patients. The doc then will usually try them out on a patient who has failed to get sufficient relief from other established drugs for the condition. If that patient reports back that the new drug worked the doc will prescribe it for that patient, as well as keeping it in mind for future patients. That is how it works. If the drug cannot stand on its own merits the doc is NOT going to prescribe it just because they got a free meal.

After my evening workout . . . I enjoy a glass or two of wine. It helps me sleep great every single time.

Or, for me, a bottle.

they do get benefits from drug companies for this type of thing.

Oh yeah? You sure about that?

The amount of ignorance and BS in this thread is horrifying. People seem to pretty much believe anything they want to believe.

Unfortunately many people seek out information that bolsters whatever fear they've decided to have, while avoiding information that would show that the fear is either completely invalid or disproportionate to the situation. Sigh.

Drug reps leave gifts, buy meals for Dr offices, and all kinds of things just so the doctor will prescribe their brand of pharmaceuticals. That's for all their products, not just the latest and greatest. Even if the product has gone generic, the company that created the formula gets a portion of the sales for all generics for up to 7 years after the generic has been authorized. This is a pretty common practice with the medical community and Big Pharma.

Thank you for illustrating my point. Free meal = doctors in thrall to a drug company. Yup. That's completely reasonable. :laugh:

Well if someone selling anything bought you lunch, wouldn't you be more inclined to recommend their product to your friends, family members, and co-workers. Same difference.

No. That is just silly. I can't imagine a rational person being so easily influenced. The only way that would work would be if the product in question was the food itself.

Okay... well not everyone in the world is just like you. It must be nice to see the world with rose-colored glasses, but the fact of the matter is that doctors are human. And humans develop biases even if they don't realize it. Sales reps go out of their way to build relationships with doctors so that doctors will be more inclined to prescribe their product over a competitors. That is how the industry works. Sure, it sounds a bit malignant, but that is how its always been.

Rationality and logic are the polar opposite of rose-colored glasses. The use of meals and gifts of cake or the like is meant to get the drug rep's foot in the door. The value of these gifts is severely limited, specifically to limit undue influence. The drug rep gets the prescriber's ear long enough to pitch the new drug. The doc gets free samples to hand out to patients. The doc then will usually try them out on a patient who has failed to get sufficient relief from other established drugs for the condition. If that patient reports back that the new drug worked the doc will prescribe it for that patient, as well as keeping it in mind for future patients. That is how it works. If the drug cannot stand on its own merits the doc is NOT going to prescribe it just because they got a free meal.

Okay... but doctors build relationships with the sales reps over the course of years. Most drugs that are presented by the sales rep have already been thoroughly vetted to prove their merits. Sure, the doc is going to take feedback from his patients, but if all things are equal, then the doc is going to prescribe the drugs of the sales rep he likes best first. Then, if his patients don't like it, he will offer them the other guy's drug.

Bias is usually not a concious decision. You know that, right?

they do get benefits from drug companies for this type of thing.

Oh yeah? You sure about that?

The amount of ignorance and BS in this thread is horrifying. People seem to pretty much believe anything they want to believe.

Unfortunately many people seek out information that bolsters whatever fear they've decided to have, while avoiding information that would show that the fear is either completely invalid or disproportionate to the situation. Sigh.

Drug reps leave gifts, buy meals for Dr offices, and all kinds of things just so the doctor will prescribe their brand of pharmaceuticals. That's for all their products, not just the latest and greatest. Even if the product has gone generic, the company that created the formula gets a portion of the sales for all generics for up to 7 years after the generic has been authorized. This is a pretty common practice with the medical community and Big Pharma.

Thank you for illustrating my point. Free meal = doctors in thrall to a drug company. Yup. That's completely reasonable. :laugh:

Well if someone selling anything bought you lunch, wouldn't you be more inclined to recommend their product to your friends, family members, and co-workers. Same difference.

No. That is just silly. I can't imagine a rational person being so easily influenced. The only way that would work would be if the product in question was the food itself.

Okay... well not everyone in the world is just like you. It must be nice to see the world with rose-colored glasses, but the fact of the matter is that doctors are human. And humans develop biases even if they don't realize it. Sales reps go out of their way to build relationships with doctors so that doctors will be more inclined to prescribe their product over a competitors. That is how the industry works. Sure, it sounds a bit malignant, but that is how its always been.

Rationality and logic are the polar opposite of rose-colored glasses. The use of meals and gifts of cake or the like is meant to get the drug rep's foot in the door. The value of these gifts is severely limited, specifically to limit undue influence. The drug rep gets the prescriber's ear long enough to pitch the new drug. The doc gets free samples to hand out to patients. The doc then will usually try them out on a patient who has failed to get sufficient relief from other established drugs for the condition. If that patient reports back that the new drug worked the doc will prescribe it for that patient, as well as keeping it in mind for future patients. That is how it works. If the drug cannot stand on its own merits the doc is NOT going to prescribe it just because they got a free meal.

Okay... but doctors build relationships with the sales reps over the course of years. Most drugs that are presented by the sales rep have already been thoroughly vetted to prove their merits. Sure, the doc is going to take feedback from his patients, but if all things are equal, then the doc is going to prescribe the drugs of the sales rep he likes best first. Then, if his patients don't like it, he will offer them the other guy's drug.

Bias is usually not a concious decision. You know that, right?

I see you ascribing bias an undue amount of influence in the process.

I see you ascribing bias an undue amount of influence in the process.

Like I said, doctors aren't infallible. They are human. And humans are influenced by personal bias.