In this video I comment on trazodone (which is the generic name), uses, dose range, process of coming off, and side effects.
Hi so uh today i would like to talk a bit about trazadone um trizodone actually is the generic name for this medication uh i think the brand name in the us is uh desurel but you’re not going to hear that pretty much this is a medication that goes by its generic name and uh that’s trazado so uh trazadone uh was originally approved and marketed as an antidepressant
But these days and for a long time it’s pretty much used exclusively as a sleep aid and i have not frequently prescribed it uh as an antidepressant uh there’s a lot of options that we have to treat depression and uh transcendental just has a reputation of not being a particularly effective antidepressant you know i don’t know if that’s a fair characterization but
Uh that’s just the reputation that it has and as i said it’s pretty much used exclusively as a sleep aid so the dose range that we actually use the dose range i think is much can go much higher but pretty much we use it um you know starting at 25 milligrams and then all the way up to about 150 or 200 milligrams i’ve seen people on higher doses uh even just for
Sleep but generally um so the the main problem with tracidone as a sleep aid is that it can overshoot and still be in your system in the morning so it can cause a hangover or grogginess uh in the early part of the day so that’s what tends to limit the dosing for some people um but the thing to keep in mind with tracidone and with all medications is that just
Because there’s a common effect for most people it doesn’t necessarily dictate exactly what you or any particular individual is going to experience so um as i said i have patients i have one patient i can think of who’s on 300 milligrams of trazadone and that’s just what she needs to really facilitate sleep and she doesn’t have any problems with um grogginess
In the morning and then i have other patients where even at 50 milligrams they just find it a little bit too uh too much and in that they’re groggy in the morning and after a while sometimes the 50 milligrams doesn’t even help them fall asleep that easily um people can develop a bit of a tolerance to it but it’s it it’s ver it varies across the board i i like
Having trazzadone as an option because it works great for some people really just puts them right to sleep and they have a nice sound sleep and they don’t have any issues with grogginess so that’s what we want out of a sleep medication and for some people that’s true other people they just uh they really don’t like it uh at all uh they just find it too crop
You know makes them too groggy right from the get-go um or for others it just doesn’t work uh as well and we do have other options to use for sleep um in terms of uh coming off of the medication um you know depends on what dose you’re on uh i like to taper any medication so um you know if you are on taking 100 milligrams and you want to try to come off of it
I will generally advise that you take a lower dose for some uh time maybe a week um it you know it we cater it to each particular patient um and then um the the main kind of side effect of coming off any sleep aid is that you won’t sleep as well it’s fine to tolerate that initially because your body’s going to kind of get used to not having sort of something
That signals sleep by taking a sleeping pill um but there shouldn’t be any uh significant physical withdrawal coming off of trazadone and um common side effects uh it’s basically what i kept alluding to which is that you can get this kind of hangover in the morning and that’s the main thing you have to grapple with one other uh rare side effect to keep in mind
With trazadone is something uh only men have to be concerned about it’s something called priapism which is a sustained erection uh it’s not very common but it is something that is associated with trazodone and something to be aware of and just to mention um when prescribing it because uh if it does happen it’s uh very important that uh the that individual go
To the emergency room and get treatment right away because you can do uh you can have long-term damage to erectile function if uh the sustained direction is not uh addressed appropriately so it’s very very rare i have had one patient in my practice who developed it they knew what it was right away they got it treated there was no long-term effects of it we just
Avoided trazadone in that patient as you should do with any patient who develops this very unusual side effect but um it’s worth being aware of so i mentioned it but it’s uh not at all common and not i think a reason not to consider using trazodone so i think it’s a good option for sleep and that’s it thanks
Transcribed from video
Comments on Psych Meds by a Psychiatrist: trazodone By DrSaraiya
