Doctors, drug reps and Rozerem

I talked to my doctor about improving my sleep. I told him I dont stay asleep and wanted to try Ambien CR because I did research and felt it was a good choice. Well, he insisted that I try Rozerem first because its a non controlled substance and the safest. I told him I read about it and its similar to Melitionin which doesnt work very well for me. He basicly shut me up and said its different. He also told me I must take the drug for two weeks before it starts to work.

Well... I could not use it for more than 5 days otherwise I would be dead in two weeks. It totaly wrecked my sleep. I verified my sleeping with my data recording pulse oximeter and it clearly backs up my feeling of having restless disturbed sleep. (by looking at my pulse data graph) The past 5 days have been like I was before I used CPAP. Feeling horrible, falling asleep at lunch, falling asleep right after work, being told I look awful and somthing is wrong with me. YUP somthing was wrong and I stopped taking it.

Its ashame the doctors get most of their information from drug reps, who are basicly sales people. Their #1 goal is to sell their product. Takida has spent 110 million dollars marketing this drug but all the Abe Lincolns and Beavers on TV will not make it a good drug.

I am interested in knowing about your RESEARCH and how you came to the conclusion it was a good choice?

Go to yahoo groups and look up ambien addicts.
read their horror stories and see how this affects your research.
Thise who like sleeping aids as well as any drug they like will come up with all the reasons in the worlsdto justify taking them.

They will, like Elvis, never think a drug uis harmful if it is prescribed by a doc.
The fact that they find a doc willing to write a rx does not make them less harmful.

A great percentage of people can ntake drugs properly as prescribed for a short duration and have no problem.
A certain percentage will abuse them- percentages game.
A very small pct of people have problems that frequire sleep aids.
the rest do not really need them.
35+ years as a pharmacist helped me in my research.

Hey, ANYTHING we pop into our mouths to go thru our digestive tract that we've never ingested before is a potential risk for undesirable side effects of some sort.

And every once in a while something we've ingested many times before will all of a sudden cause a serious allergic reaction and I don't think anyone really knows why.

Medications are a little more suspect simply because man has been toying w/Momma Nature in creating them. I get a kick out of the "safety" of "natural" products since man had to toy w/that "natural" product in order to get it into its "unnatural" form of a pill or capsule.

I will say, as much as I like and respect my family doctor, I have more confidence in my pharmacist's knowledge of the drugs I am scripted.

I am one of those jerks who take Ambien and am happy to share my experience. I am an RN by the way. I do not take any medications I can do without. I have had severe insomnia all my life. Once, I was unable to fall asleep for 5 days. Many times I have stayed awake all night because I couldn't fall asleep. I wonder if it was due to terror of sleeping badly from OSA.

I have taken Ambien nearly every night for the past 5 years. I've been on Cpap for 3 months. With my touchy being able to go to sleep problems, I would never be able to get to sleep with a hose attached to my face! Over the years, I've tried every sleeping medication ever made. All the prescription meds for sleep gave me a hangover and made me feel drugged except Rozerem which did nothing at all. OTC medications for sleep are designed for other purposes and sleepiness is a side effect. I once took the benadyl formula and slept for 24 hours (not very practical) Ambien works for me every night, same dose. It has a half life of 2 hours so is out of my system when I wake up. I thank God for this medication every night. I no longer fear bedtime and I know I can always sleep with it.

Not everyone is an idiot if they take a medication to help a problem. People abuse medications for all kinds of reasons. Those of us who use our medications in a responsible way do not deserve to be stigmatized or punished for the behaviors of a few.

p.s. I've never gotten into my car naked to drive to a fast food joint for a Big Mac.

Well, hell's belles, RobbieH, you're no fun at all!!! Here I've been sitting outside of MickeyD's waiting for you to show up in your birthday suit .....

andyomega wrote:........... I verified my sleeping with my data recording pulse oximeter and it clearly backs up my feeling of having restless disturbed sleep. (by looking at my pulse data graph) ..................

Just wondering what your pulse graph looked like before you took Rozerem and after you stopped?

Rozerem did not work for me and I really haven't heard any good comments about it.

On the other hand, I can tell you a horror story sometime about Ambien.

After trying many things, I came to the conclusion that no sleeping drug treats the root of the problem. They just treat the symptom and the problem continues to damage one's health.

When I get home from work, I will post PRE and POST graphs.
I am starting to think I should count my blessings that CPAP therapy has worked wonders for me. Maybe I should just be happy enough with that.

rooster wrote:

andyomega wrote:........... I verified my sleeping with my data recording pulse oximeter and it clearly backs up my feeling of having restless disturbed sleep. (by looking at my pulse data graph) ..................

Just wondering what your pulse graph looked like before you took Rozerem and after you stopped?

Rozerem did not work for me and I really haven't heard any good comments about it.

On the other hand, I can tell you a horror story sometime about Ambien.

After trying many things, I came to the conclusion that no sleeping drug treats the root of the problem. They just treat the symptom and the problem continues to damage one's health.

[quote="andyomega"]I talked to my doctor about improving my sleep. I told him I dont stay asleep and wanted to try Ambien CR because I did research and felt it was a good choice. Well, he insisted that I try Rozerem first because its a non controlled substance and the safest. I told him I read about it and its similar to Melitionin which doesnt work very well for me. He basicly shut me up and said its different. He also told me I must take the drug for two weeks before it starts to work.

Well... I could not use it for more than 5 days otherwise I would be dead in two weeks. It totaly wrecked my sleep. I verified my sleeping with my data recording pulse oximeter and it clearly backs up my feeling of having restless disturbed sleep. (by looking at my pulse data graph) The past 5 days have been like I was before I used CPAP. Feeling horrible, falling asleep at lunch, falling asleep right after work, being told I look awful and somthing is wrong with me. YUP somthing was wrong and I stopped taking it.

Its ashame the doctors get most of their information from drug reps, who are basicly sales people. Their #1 goal is to sell their product. Takida has spent 110 million dollars marketing this drug but all the Abe Lincolns and Beavers on TV will not make it a good drug.

Andyomega2 wrote:........
I am starting to think I should count my blessings that CPAP therapy has worked wonders for me. Maybe I should just be happy enough with that.


.........

If you are like many of us, you went undiagnosed many years. I can't even imagine what kind of adjustments my brain must have made to deal with this nightly trauma.

It may take a long time for my brain to heal and begin to trust the rest of my body well enough to sleep soundly at night. Might sleeping medications slow this process down? I think so.