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New insomnia drug just approved by FDA


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Lemborexant, a DORA ( dual orexin receptor antagonist) was just cleared by the FDA this week. This drug, I would guess, is similar in method of action to Belsomra. It targets the orexins which are thought to be the wakefulness  transmitters.

 

According to the mfg, Eisai, they expect to have it commercially available within 90 days.

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HA! Another drug created only to earn money for someone, and it well undoubtedly harm many innocent people, just as benzos did.

Going through this, I no longer believe in pills. The fewer I take, the better.

east

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Lemborexant, a DORA ( dual orexin receptor antagonist) was just cleared by the FDA this week. This drug, I would guess, is similar in method of action to Belsomra. It targets the orexins which are thought to be the wakefulness  transmitters.

 

According to the mfg, Eisai, they expect to have it commercially available within 90 days.

 

Interesting, Rupert.

 

We'll have to wait and see about how addicting it is, I suppose.  :-[

 

Katz

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Lemborexant, a DORA ( dual orexin receptor antagonist) was just cleared by the FDA this week. This drug, I would guess, is similar in method of action to Belsomra. It targets the orexins which are thought to be the wakefulness  transmitters.

 

According to the mfg, Eisai, they expect to have it commercially available within 90 days.

 

Thanks but no thanks (LOL). Artificial sleep (long-term) is never a good thing.

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The only way to find out just how bad it will be for you is to try the new drug and find out just how much injury over time it causes. No thanks.
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  • 2 weeks later...

It's simply another "flavor" of Belsomra, which was completely worthless for me.  I was given 10 pill "trial packs" that did zero.  They claim it works by interrupting orexin and as others have said, who knows what side effects or WD could result?  Looking for "another drug" to take for sleep is a DEAD END ROAD.  No matter how "safe" or "effective" the FDA says a certain drug is, it will stop working over time.  I know for some that struggle with sleep, finding a "non-Benzo" alternative sleep drug is big news.  However, CBT is more effective treating insomnia than even Benzos.

 

 

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Gaboxadol iimproves sleep architecture based on my research. It enhances REM and deep sleep. It is a muscimol derivative and not easy to get a hold of. I'm not sure how effective it would be against extreme insomnia but it is miraculous for most insomnia from what I read. Taking too much causes hallucinations which is why it didn't get approved by the FDA, but an effective dosage of around 15mg which is enough for most people to sleep well doesn't cause unwanted side effects.

 

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Hi -

 

Here's my two cents.

 

Shortly after ridding my body of Benzos (which took nearly 2-years time), and before that, all other psychotropics, I gave Belsomra a try.  The first time I did, I didn't notice any advantage to taking them.  However, the second time around, I did notice that they made me sleepy, but just because they did, I wasn't always able to sleep.  My thoughts prior to taking them, were that Belsomra would help my body get back its' sleep rhythm.  And even though occasionally I would get sleep, I can't say that I would've received any less had I not been taking the Belsomra.  (Does that make sense?)

 

But just to clarify; Belsomra WILL NOT interfere with Benzo recovery.  As we are all aware, Benzos work on GABA to induce sleepiness.  Belsomra, on the other hand, works on OREXIN to reduce wakefulness.  Two different roads that - yes, lead to the same place, but one road will not effect the other (think of two parallel lines running alongside each other). 

 

Last week, after nearly 4 years, I quit taking my Belsomra - cold turkey.  (I was on 10mg)  And, after I had stopped, I encountered no ill side effects.  In fact, last nite a slept a little over 8 hours.  WooHoo!  :yippee:

 

I know I'm new to this conversation, and I haven't been around BB much since I jumped, but if I were to bring you up to speed on my story, you would understand that I had an EXTREMELY HORRIBLE time of it with medications and the removal of them (the same as mostly everyone else here has).  My experience, the same, again, as many others here, left me traumatized.  Which brings me to this.

 

For the past year and half I have been seeing a doctor who specializes in PTSD.  Long story short, my sympathetic nervous system was to blame for my inability to sleep.  The solution, to re-train my PARASYMPATHETIC nervous system.  So what started 25 years ago looks as though it is finally coming to an end.  Soli Deo Gloria! 

 

Medications can help us.  But, that said, they are not the answer in and of themselves.  If a medication will help us take back control, well then by all means, we need to take the help where we can get it.  Only, we need to take the help with the understanding that is is just HELP, that ultimately it is YOU who should be in control (not some pill).   

 

Too many people nowadays are looking for someone else to do the work for them instead of doing the work for themselves.  We've all learned this truth the hard way, whether we intended to or not.  Maybe you've heard the saying - don't cut off your nose to spite your face.  We've all had a terrible experience.  But just because we have, we don't want to allow THAT experience to stand in the way of our possibly receiving HELP when it is being offered to us. 

 

Belsomra wasn't bad.  It did make me sleepy, it just didn't ensure that I WOULD sleep.  No, unfortunately Belsomra did not address the underlying cause to my sleep depravation issue.  That would come in the form of another helper; a PTSD specialist to be exact. 

 

Nowadays the only "medication" help I take for sleep is Melatonin (Natrol 10mg Time-release tablets).  And when that help is no longer needed, then I'll be thankful it was there when I needed it, and gratefully move on my way.

 

grace, peace & love -

 

eli 

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eli,

 

Thanks so much for the informative post on your  Belsomra usage. I can echo your  experiences!! I  tied this new drug when it first hit the market in 2014, with horrible results. Subsequently, Belsomra has been my go to choice for sleep without the issues of Z drugs and benzo's. I found, by trial and error, Belsomra will not work if you are in Z drug or benzo withdrawal. I believe you must totally be "free" of the hypnotic drugs effect for Belsomra to have any efficacy.

 

I have had chronic insomnia for 20+ years. I believe it is genetic as my mother had it and my brother has it . In fact, my 9 year old grandson has been experiencing insomnia issues for the past 3 years.

 

I have run the gamut on sleep drugs. Everything from all the hypnotics to the anti depressives to OTC to herbs to Xyrem. I have tried, and failed CBTI. I've tried brain music, acupuncture and the EBB and Fisher Wallace devices with no success.

 

I was originally put on benzo's, and then switched to Z drugs by a sleep doc who informed me I would be taking drugs to sleep for the rest of my life. What a mistake to listen to his advice. I became tolerant to the Z drugs and went through what everyone else on this site experiences with the horrible withdrawal.

 

I have been off benzo's and Z drugs for 38 months but still experience insomnia nightly.

 

Like you, I have stopped Belsomra numerous times, to give myself a "holiday" and hold off tolerance. I have never experienced rebound insomnia or had any next day issues with I stop Belsomra. I guess, in my situation, I will need some sort of medication for the rest of my life. 

 

I would be very interested in hearing what your PTSD doc is having you do to improve your sleep structure.

 

 

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eli,

 

Thanks so much for the informative post on your  Belsomra usage. I can echo your  experiences!! I  tied this new drug when it first hit the market in 2014, with horrible results. Subsequently, Belsomra has been my go to choice for sleep without the issues of Z drugs and benzo's. I found, by trial and error, Belsomra will not work if you are in Z drug or benzo withdrawal. I believe you must totally be "free" of the hypnotic drugs effect for Belsomra to have any efficacy.

 

I have had chronic insomnia for 20+ years. I believe it is genetic as my mother had it and my brother has it . In fact, my 9 year old grandson has been experiencing insomnia issues for the past 3 years.

 

I have run the gamut on sleep drugs. Everything from all the hypnotics to the anti depressives to OTC to herbs to Xyrem. I have tried, and failed CBTI. I've tried brain music, acupuncture and the EBB and Fisher Wallace devices with no success.

 

I was originally put on benzo's, and then switched to Z drugs by a sleep doc who informed me I would be taking drugs to sleep for the rest of my life. What a mistake to listen to his advice. I became tolerant to the Z drugs and went through what everyone else on this site experiences with the horrible withdrawal.

 

I have been off benzo's and Z drugs for 38 months but still experience insomnia nightly.

 

Like you, I have stopped Belsomra numerous times, to give myself a "holiday" and hold off tolerance. I have never experienced rebound insomnia or had any next day issues with I stop Belsomra. I guess, in my situation, I will need some sort of medication for the rest of my life. 

 

I would be very interested in hearing what your PTSD doc is having you do to improve your sleep structure.

 

Hi, Rupert -

 

First off, prior to medications, I had, what I consider and I believe most people, including doctors, would agree, was normal sleep.  OCCASIONALLY, I might experience some "sleeplessness," but nothing like what developed AFTER I was prescribed medication. 

 

After moving across the country to a place where I knew not a soul, for a job that, unfortunately, didn't work out, I became a little down.  Nothing that would be consider "out of the ordinary," considering the circumstances or not.  And everything would have worked out just fine, had I been given the opportunity to process what had happened, but after being referred to a Psychiatrist, and then being placed on Prozac, everything went down hill, mighty fast and uncontrollably, from there.  And although things have slowed down considerably since jumping the Benzo train in September of 2014, it has been a slow, upward  struggle to get to where I am today.

 

I'll try to explain. 

 

For all intents and purposes, my body/system responded to the medications as though it were under attack.  I experienced what is medically known as an iatrogenic response.  Think of being in danger; a pack of rabid dogs running towards you, flames bursting out around you, a speeding baseball headed for you, your body responds without any conscious effort on your part.  This "automatic response," this "built-in" safety mechanism, is brought to us by our friendly neighborhood sympathetic nervous system.  It has been referred to in text books as our "fight or flight" response.

 

Our bodies "sympathetic" response to dangerous situations is a good thing.  Without it, all life threatening situations would require thought, or rational of our options, BEFORE we could respond.  However, as good as that is, it is intended for short-term use - only.  A PROLONGED RESPONSE would reek havoc on our CNS, not to mention our psyche.  In may case, my body was running on my sympathetic nervous system for - years.     

 

Our sympathetic nervous system is "sympathetic" to our situation.  Once we're clear of danger, our parasympathetic nervous system steps in and takes over, so that we are back in control

 

As in my case, prolong sympathetic response (PSR) lead to PTSD, which requires the retraining of the parasympathetic nervous system to correct.  (PSR plus other contributing factors led to my PTSD)

 

This gets dicey as it's difficult for me to explain. 

 

Dance, where you don't think but move.  Yoga, where your focus is on your breathing (your anchor), which enables you to then hold various positions.  Massage or touch, where the focus is on feeling.  Ummm, scent, where the focus is on smell.  Activities which are subtle, is how the parasympathetic nervous system is reset.  You cannot force it into submission.  You have to subtly coerce it to your will.

 

Here's an exercise I do.  I don't try to control my breathing.  If I do, I loose - every - time.  But if I focus on my breath, WITHOUT ATTEMPTING TO CONTROL OR SLOW IT DOWN, but just focus on it, eventually and gradually - it slows down.  Whether fast, labored or erratic, I focus on my breath, and without realizing, it slows down. 

 

I also focus on sounds (rainstorm) and smells (lavender).  When my mind wanders, and it does, I gently pull it back to the sound or smell or whatever it is I am doing at the time.  This is constant.  My mind wanders, I gently pull it back.  I can't force it.  I can't get upset.  I recognize that my focus is off, and then gently return it to whatever it was I was doing.

 

This takes dedication, persistence AND patience.  And knowing when it's time to stop, too. 

 

The longest I was "sleep deprived" was for a time starting shortly after Christmas (26th or 27th), until February 1.  I'm not going to try to convince anyone of this, because either you will believe or you won't, but just understand whether you do or not, I was. 

 

After that stretch, the longest I recall was 2 weeks at a time, and less.  This went on for YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEARSSS.       

 

Now, I can't go and introduce a substance that speeds up my respiration, and then be expected to lower it, simply by executing what I just outlined above.  It doesn't work that way.  Just as I can't down a bottle of Jack Daniels and then will myself to walk a straight line or even to be sober.  This is why, as I have come to understand and experience has taught me, CBT is counterproductive as well as unsuccessful and only frustrating to the individual experiencing Benzo withdrawal.  And also why my sympathetic nervous system became overworked, and now my parasympathetic nervous system needs to be retrained so that it can step-in and do its job.

 

It is so much more than what I just shared, but hopefully I've given you at least an "idea" of what retraining the parasympathetic nervous system entails.

 

My doctor also said that steam is a good way to go about retraining your parasympathetic nervous system too.  For the retraining exercises, our focus is to be on the sensation; the feel of hot steam on your skin, the feel of hands massaging our bodies, the smell of a sent, etc. 

 

I would like to try Yoga or dance, but because of a procedure I'm currently undergoing for these past 3 and ½ years, I'm not allowed to bear weight with my right foot.  But the idea of both, is you focus on the beat when you dance, and your breath during Yoga, and just move.  It seems an easy way to go about retraining your system, if not fun.

 

Other than that, feel free to be more specific with any questions you might have.  I will be happy to do all I can to answer them or refer you to someone who can.

 

peace, brother -

 

eli   

 

         

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eli,

 

Thank you for the every detailed explanation. I can't say I completely understand everything but I have the general idea.

 

I believe, as we age, our brain makes changes too. Things I used to be able to do 20 years ago are now just memories. ie ability to meditate and concentrate say on a complex problem or idea. I think it is the same with our ability to sleep like we did years ago. There have been chemical changes in our brains, ( my belief) that make it much more difficult to shut off our thoughts. I found, once hitting 50 or so, these changes really started to manifest themselves. Where I used to be able to meditate and fall off to sleep, I am now unable to maintain the meditation sequence without interruption.

 

Wishing you continued success in your journey.

 

rupert

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eli,

 

Thank you for the every detailed explanation. I can't say I completely understand everything but I have the general idea.

 

I believe, as we age, our brain makes changes too. Things I used to be able to do 20 years ago are now just memories. ie ability to meditate and concentrate say on a complex problem or idea. I think it is the same with our ability to sleep like we did years ago. There have been chemical changes in our brains, ( my belief) that make it much more difficult to shut off our thoughts. I found, once hitting 50 or so, these changes really started to manifest themselves. Where I used to be able to meditate and fall off to sleep, I am now unable to maintain the meditation sequence without interruption.

 

Wishing you continued success in your journey.

 

rupert

 

Just to be clear, the aging process is natural, and - Yeah, our concentration as well as cognitive abilities tend wane as we grow older.  But what I described is trauma due to unnatural circumstances.  There's a difference in that, trauma if addressed can be remedied or corrected.  Whereas aging deficits can be mitigated by taking precautions, but not so much corrected as in being reversed. 

 

Time and time again doctors would attempt to implement "sleep hygiene" steps to remedy my sleeplessness.  At the time doing so did me no good, and if anything only frustrated and perpetuated my situation by not acknowledging much less addressing the underlying cause.  All the sleep hygiene in the world won't remedy a situation where medication attacks physiological structures inducing severe trauma to the individual.  After the individual heals - Yes, sleep hygiene can be introduced, but not before. 

 

grace, peace & love -

 

eli

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  • 1 month later...

Congratulations. I meeting with a new ptsd therapist today. You took Belsoma for 4 years. Did it ever work?

 

Is that question for me?  If so, it definitely made me sleepier, but being made sleepier isn't what I needed, it was the ability to actually SLEEP that I was desperately in need of, and still am. 

 

I'm not sure if the Belsomra TRULY helped.  I quit taking it this past December, and when I had, I noticed that the QUALITY of my sleep improved, and immediately, too.  I might not sleep for more than 3-4 hours, sometime more, a nite, but the quality of that sleep compensates for any lack of it.  And also once I stopped, I also noticed that the Belsomra had been agitating me.  Because what I ALSO noticed, which was also immediate, was how much more at peace I felt.  But that's me.

 

Just for a bit of background particular to me.  Long story short.  After 20 years, the doctor I had been seeing, was able to come to the conclusion that it was the psychotropics being prescribed to me that were causing me to be ill.  He explained it in two written statements, saying that my condition was iatrogenic.  So I'm not sure if I'm the best example to go by for how well Belsomra will or will not work for someone.  So take my experience regarding it with a grain of salt.  But it definitely does make you sleepy.  But whether you're all to sleep or not, however, is an entirely different matter altogether.   

 

shalom -

 

eli                   

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  • 2 weeks later...
eli, how do you retrain the parasympathetic system? I think I have the same issue. It started before benzos with nonrestorative sleep. I was eventually diagnosed with dysaoutonomia based on this and a whole lot more symptoms.
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Yoga and meditation strengthen the parasympathetic nervous system, but you may not feel much results while in withdrawal. Keep it up and you eventually will as you heal. The interesting thing about meditation is that I find it possible to feel its calming effects during times of stress by just thinking about it.
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eli, how do you retrain the parasympathetic system? I think I have the same issue. It started before benzos with nonrestorative sleep. I was eventually diagnosed with dysaoutonomia based on this and a whole lot more symptoms.

 

Hi -

 

I'm sorry for what you're experiencing.  And as alohafromhawaii stated, it's next to impossible to accomplish much of anything while in the midst of withdrawal.  But to answer your question, again, it's as alohafromhawaii stated, meditation, such as with Yoga, helps to retrain the parasympathetic nervous system.  But that's not the only way.  My current doctor also suggested: massage and dance.  He explained to me that you can't go face-to-face with the parasympathetic nervous system, because if you do you'll lose every time.  So rather, you have to "sneak up" on it.  That sounds really odd, I know.  And it's difficult for me to explain, much less to do so through an online message board. 

 

Think of breathing.  If you try to control your breathing while you're panicking, it's next to impossible to slow it down; it's an automatic response.  But after the situation calms down, or you become accustomed to the situation, that without conscious thought, you realize you're no longer panting.  That's a really rough analogy, so don't pick it apart but take it for what I'm attempting to explain. ha

 

It has to do with distraction.  This is a method that therapists employ to treat PTSD patients (which is what I'm, and probably a lot of other people here are, currently experiencing). 

 

I see my doctor this coming week.  I'll ask him to suggest some online links regarding this, that I can then share with you and everyone else here who is interested.  It has helped me.  I was a complete blubbering idiot at one time, and now look at me; strong, virile, handsome ....  hahahahaha  :D   

 

shalom -

 

eli 

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Deep full breathing that fills the belly first then up through the lungs also stimulates the vagus nerve which in turn activates the parasympathetic nervous system. Taking slow deep breaths through the nose with a longer exhale than inhale is supposed to work best, according to yoga teaching.
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Thanks Eli and Aloha for the great posts.  Very informative.

 

I’m almost at two months benzo free, and things are gradually getting better.  Lavender is definitely a favorite scent that helps me relax. 

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