New here, love my CPAP

ailsaek · Post by **ailsaek** » Mon Sep 04, 2006 7:01 am

I just registered this morning, and I've had my CPAP for a week and a half. My sleep study was back on 3 July, but it took the sleep center and my doctor a while to get coordinated.

I've been dealing with depression pretty much forever, and have been medicated for it for three years. I went off my meds last fall, figuring I could take OTC St. John's Wort instead, and by this spring I was exhausted all the time. I called my PCP to make an appointment to be screened for Lyme Disease (I garden, and there were a lot of ticks this year). She noted that I am obese and asked if I was open to being sent to their diet specialist. I agreed, and when I saw him, he asked me if I had troubles with shortness of breath and recommended me for a sleep study.

I had my sleep study, as I mentioned above, on 3 July. Had a heck of a time getting to sleep with all those wires attached to me, and then seconds after I'd finally fallen asleep (or so it felt anyway), the techs burst in, said I had met the qualifications for a CPAP, and strapped one to my head.

The next day, i felt amazing! I had energy, i could breathe, I spent the entire day marvelling that the world had so much air in it.

And then I had to endure until I could get fitted for my CPAP. Being short of breath was just my reality, so I'd never noticed that I couldn't breathe. It was a heck of a lot harder to deal with once I knew the difference.

But now I have my CPAP, and it's like night and day. I can get things done during the day. The only time I need naps is when I've been sleep deprived for a couple of days. I can breathe. It's wonderful.

What I'm wondering is, I ran out of Prozac on Wednesday, and we didn't get the prescription refilled until yesterday (Sunday), and right up until late last night, I felt fine. Usually if I skip a dose of Prozac, I feel lousy, and if I have to go that long between doses, I barely have the energy to get out of bed, let alone deal with people - and yesterday I cleaned my kitchen. Have other people been able to cut back on antidepressants when starting with a CPAP?

Sorry if this is too long or TMI, by the way. My friends aren't really interested in my new CPAP and all that, and I've been dying to be able to tell someone how wonderful I feel and how marvellous it is.

NightHawkeye · Post by **NightHawkeye** » Mon Sep 04, 2006 7:38 am

ailsaek wrote: Have other people been able to cut back on antidepressants when starting with a CPAP?

Sorry if this is too long or TMI, by the way. My friends aren't really interested in my new CPAP and all that, and I've been dying to be able to tell someone how wonderful I feel and how marvellous it is.

Congratulations on your successful treatment, ailsaek, and welcome to cpaptalk. I think you'll find that CPAP treatment resolves a lot of systemic problems over time. Many of us have found that to be the case. Being deprived of oxygen while sleeping can cause a lot of problems. Fortunately, many of them clear up on treatment.

Wish I could answer your question about antidepressants, but I imagine others will come along shortly to do so.

Regards,
Bill

DreamStalker · Post by **DreamStalker** » Mon Sep 04, 2006 9:16 am

Welcome to the family.

No problem finding people here to listen to your CPAP experiences ... most can relate quite well.

- roberto

NyNurse33 · Post by **NyNurse33** » Mon Sep 04, 2006 9:29 am

HI and Welcome! I just joined last week myself. I've only been using cpap for 4 weeks. About 3 years ago, I spoke with my pcp about feeling very "short tempered", anxious about silly things that never bothered me before (driving in snow) and a little tired. He put me on Lexapro which I was convinced caused a decreased libido (later to learn it was probably sleep apnea) and then switched me to Wellbutrin XR. Although it did help with my mood somewhat, I was becoming more tired over the course of the next year or so. I decided on my own that it wasn't helping enough with my energy and my undesire to do things around the house, with my kids, with my husbanc, etc. And I didn't feel "sad", just a lack of energy. I'm a nurse manager of an Assisted living facility and one of my new residents had sleep apnea and narcolepsy (poor thing) and was using cpap. I was friends with one of the local DMEs' RT and talked to her about sleep apnea and some of my symptoms. SHe was nice enough to let me take home a pulse oximetry and do an overnight study and then interpret my results. They certainly showed a dip in my oxygen saturations, increased HR, etc. I scheduled an appt with an ENT, sleep lab and the rest is history. I don't think I ever was depressed, or had an anxiety disorder, I think these are symptoms that are all related to sleep apnea and that unfortuntely go undiagnosed for a long time for most of us. 2 weeks ago, I cooked sunday breakfast for my family for the first time in over a year. The other night I stayed up later than anyone in my family. I'm usually passed out on the couch @ 9 pm. I don't have to take a nap after work anymore. The best thing for me is that I'm not snacking on junk food anymore (for that quick sugar high, my body was craving) and I'm hoping to lose some of this weight that I gained from lack of energy. I'm hoping to get back to the gym 3 days a week and run the 3 miles I was running 3 days a week 3 yrs ago. Good luck to you and I think you will find as most of the people here I'm sure have found, that you will feel better and you and your family will be grateful for it.

CollegeGirl · Post by **CollegeGirl** » Mon Sep 04, 2006 9:37 am

Ailsaek, welcome.

Yes, you'll find that many of us here have at one time or another been diagnosed with depression, only to find that it pretty much went away once we began CPAP treatment. That's a common experience here (thank goodness). In fact, there was a thread a while back that talked about people whose psychiatrist/psychologist referred them for a sleep study, and it got lots of responses.

Personally, I was diagnosed as bipolar a few years back. As soon as CPAP treatment started, my symptoms went away.

It's incredible what lack of sleep can do to your body and mind.

GoofyUT · Post by **GoofyUT** » Mon Sep 04, 2006 10:10 am

Allsaek-
Its unlikely that missing four days of your Prozac would have caused a dramatic difference in your mood-state. Fluoxetine (Prozac) has an ENORMOUS serum elimination half-life (the amount of time it takes for your body to metabolize and excrete the stuff), so your levels wouldn't have dropped by very much after only 4 days. Its VERY slow to leave the body.

As others have said here, many of the symptoms that doctors AND patients attribute to depression often turn out to be caused by OSA, so give yourself some time to reap the benefits of CPAP, and you may see quite a spring returning to your step!

Hope this helps!

Chuck

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whatrdreamsmadeof · Post by **whatrdreamsmadeof** » Mon Sep 04, 2006 3:55 pm

Hey chuck, what is your take on the effect prozac has on sleeping during the night..........some say it can really prohibit sleep, others say it has no effect at all......thanks, ellen

Sleepless in St. Louis · Post by **Sleepless in St. Louis** » Mon Sep 04, 2006 4:15 pm

Same story for me as far as depression / OSA. I'm still taking my Lexapro even though I'm not really sure if I need it or not anymore. All's I know is that if felt scary enough before beging treated that if I go off of it, and I really want to, I'm going to make sure I have input from my doctor. I've read that you don't really want to just stop cold turkey (even though I know a few people who have with not many ill effects) and that there is a certain way to wean yourself off of the meds. I'd recommend that you speak with your doctor before stopping, just as you would before starting any med.

Depression is a monster I'd rather not let out of the closet if I can do anything to stop it. It's funny, everybody I know seems to be or have been on meds for depression. It make me wonder how many of them have sleep related issues that they do not suspect. Do you guys always ask people if they have trouble sleeping whenever they complain about not feeling good? I guess because I have OSA, I seem to think everybody's complaints are sleep related. Maybe it's an overreaction to my doctor never bothering to ask me the proper screening questions for OSA. Instead, it was "two in the mouth" as George Carlin so aptly coined on one of his comedy albums.

Tim

GoofyUT · Post by **GoofyUT** » Mon Sep 04, 2006 4:30 pm

Ellen-
In my experience lots of folks complain about increased sleep latencies with Prozac, and so I and many of my colleagues would recommend that it be taken in the MORNING. Its a fairly activating anti-depressant, one of the most I've found in the SSRI family, and I think that it's fair to say that, for most, its doesn't PROMOTE sleep. Within the SSRIs, fluvoxamine (Luvox) and citalopram (Celexa, Lexapro's dad) are prorbably the best at promoting sleep, along with mirtazapine (Remron) and both trazodone (Desyrel) and nefadozone (Serzone), and the old work-horse tricyclic, amityptiline (Elavil). (All JUST my opinions , of course!)

Hope this helps!

Chuck

kavanaugh1950 · Post by **kavanaugh1950** » Mon Sep 04, 2006 5:50 pm

tim, make sure you wean off the lexapro over time. my cardiologist stopped mine cold turkey in april when i was hospitalized with atrial fib because i had to go on blood thinners. i was moody, very irritable and edgy for about a month. i couldn't stand myself. now i don't miss it at all and probably never needed it in the first place. pat

Sleepless in St. Louis · Post by **Sleepless in St. Louis** » Mon Sep 04, 2006 6:02 pm

Thanks Kananaugh. I'm not asking for medical advise but isn't there a method to do this? Maybe I'll do an online search, but I will prolly still talk to my doctor. The drug companies sure don't tell you how to get off of this stuff. That would be killing the cash cow. And Lexapro is the most expenstive anti depressant that I know of since it's relatively new.

Tim

kavanaugh1950 · Post by **kavanaugh1950** » Mon Sep 04, 2006 6:50 pm

I found a site called medhelp.org, it has forums such as mental health. the doctors i work with say take 1/2 pill every day for a week then every other day for a week and then every third day for a week and stop it.

droyal · Post by **droyal** » Mon Sep 04, 2006 10:09 pm

Hello Ailsaek,

I am so happy that you are finding that proper rest is relieving so many of your seeming emotional troubles. I think you are discovering what so many have discovered:

Deprive someone of a good nights sleep for weeks, months, or years on end, and darned if they don't start to have all sorts of mental and emotional problems!

The breakthrough discovery that so many people are making is that they have been mis-diagnosed, some for years, as suffering from psychiatric problems, and put on psychiatric drugs, when in fact they did not have significant mental problems. Their supposed psychiatric problems were just the result of undiagnosed illnesses.

You mentioned obesity. That problem can have all sorts of emotional impacts. But, those impacts are results, not causes.

The trouble comes when those other impacts, such as lack of energy and lack of positive emotion, are then given a psychiatric label (say, depression), without the individual being first given a through physical examination and treatment of all illness (including obesity and sleep apnea).

As many have discovered, their supposed psychiatric problems disappeared after their actual physical illnesses were treated.

As to your having been put on Prozac, all psychiatric drugs have well documented side effects, some of them quite serious (the drug company's literature lists them). So, getting off of them, particularly when one did not really have a mental problem to begin with (!), is certainly a good idea.

As others have commented, Prozac has dangerous characteristics and getting off of it, in itself, can pose dangers, so consulting with your physician while getting off the drug, is certainly a good idea.

Keep up your good direction and with persistence you will get through it.

Best wishes.

Julie · Post by **Julie** » Mon Sep 04, 2006 10:40 pm

Hi, one important thing to remember, never just go off Prozac alone (without your MD's help), or all at once, because you're quite likely to develop dizziness for a while, and think you have an inner ear problem, let alone trouble driving or even walking around, and you must come off the meds gradually.

ailsaek · Post by **ailsaek** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 5:39 am

Wow, thanks for all the helpful responses. You guys are great!

I do want to say, though, that I originally entered counselling after a family tragedy, so "depression" wasn't an unfair assumption, and the Prozac did help.

One interesting thing - my sleep study also showed that I have mild RLS. My bloodwork showed that I was badly anemic, though, so my doctor has had me taking iron and cutting back on foods that inhibit iron absorption (like dairy *sigh*) and the restless legs have gone.

It's funny to be thrilled at having been found to have a problem, but since I got my CPAP, my life has gotten so much better. I get things done during the day, I don't need to nap, and this weekend I finally had the energy to get some exercise. It's all I can do not to evangelize to all my friends. "Oh, you snore? And you're depressed? Have you ever had a sleep study?" My husband's thinking of asking his doctor for a sleep study, cos it's done so much for me.

New here, love my CPAP

New here, love my CPAP

Re: New here, love my CPAP

Prozac

drugs for depression??????///

Prozac and sleep

New.. love my Cpap