Nitrazepam - what the?

[Melisa]

Hi everyone,

I was in the process of weaning off seroquel, and had completely weaned off it (was on 600mg XR, weaned myself down to 0mg). So I asked my psychiatrist for something to make me sleep because sleeping only 3 to 6 hours a night for days on end was killing what little productivity I had. I specifically told him to not prescribe me any benzos because benzos give me anxiety. But he gave me a script for nitrazepam (mogadon) all the same. For any American readers, mogadon is a longer acting benzodiazepine that is supposed to help you stay asleep. Then it stopped working after about 3 days.  After persisting with the drug for about a week, it stopped helping me altogether, and I noticed a significant increase in low mood, teary outbursts and panic. I called my psychiatrist and asked his advice, he told me to just continue with the drug and finish the bottle of 25x5mg pills he had prescribed me.  My psychiatrist simply insisted that all of my symptoms were related to my PTSD and the prazosin I'm taking should be able to pick up the tab.

Last Tuesday, I became so overwhelmed with life due to constant panic and sucidal thoughts that I went to my pastor's house for help, but I'd reached a stage of anxiety where I can't think clearly, or form sentences well. I was sitting in the lounge room waiting for my pastor to start a conversation but he didn't seem to pick up that I needed to talk, so I left him to what he was doing to go home and kill myself. It seemed like the only logical solution. I was intercepted by my pastor's wife on the way home, because she was driving up the street I was walking down to get home. She convinced me to get into the car, but I couldn't even talk to her really. I was too hysterical.

The pastor's wife took me to the GP the next day, who gave me a plan to wean off the mogadon but she refused to release me to my own care. I refused to go to hospital, but my pastor and his wife took me in and looked after me instead. I had to be prescribed 25mg of seroquel again to take PRN and at night to sleep in combination with melatonin and I'm slowly getting better and should be able to go home  by the end of the week.

I have no idea why a small amount of benzodiazepines  would cause such extreme symptoms in me, but it's pretty horrible when you're studying a masters, it's the middle of the trimester and you can hardly even feed yourself, or get though a day without crying. Does anyone have any idea why benzodiazepines would affect me in this way and make me so emotionally unstable that I can't do anything for myself?

Edited April 4, 2017 by Melisa

[melissaw72]

Wow ... I'm sorry you went through that!  I'm glad your pastor and his wife looked after you.

Your pdoc doesn't seem to be listening to you, which IME is so frustrating and maddening.  (How often do you see her?)

4 hours ago, Melisa said:

Does anyone have any idea why benzodiazepines would affect me in this way and make me so emotionally unstable that I can't do anything for myself?

All i can say is that everyone is different in the sense of how they respond to how a med works for them.

[mikl_pls]

6 hours ago, Melisa said:

Does anyone have any idea why benzodiazepines would affect me in this way and make me so emotionally unstable that I can't do anything for myself?

 

I believe you may have experienced a paradoxical reaction to the benzo. That's my guess.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15460178

Sorry that you had to endure all that.  I agree with @melissaw72, it sounds like your pdoc isn't really listening to you very well.

Edited April 4, 2017 by mikl_pls

[Frk]

In a way, I'm not surprised. I've taken nitrazepam myself. If I take it every day I develop almost complete tolerance in a few days. Very easy to get dependent on this drug.

Fortunately, the Seroquel worked. Dependence on and tolerance to a strong benzodiazepine can cause all sorts fo problems. Not smart, that psychiatrist !

5 mg is not a small dose, it's a standard dose of a powerful drug. It has strong hypnotic and anticonvulsant effects.

Edited April 4, 2017 by Frk