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Share your experience: submit a drug review
Below are Desyrel (Trazodone) reviews, ratings, comments submitted by patients and caregivers. Based on a total of 6 ratings/reviews, Desyrel has an overall score of 7.17. The effectiveness score is 9.33 and the side effect score is 6.33. The scores are on ten point scale: 10 - best, 1 - worst. This information is not vetted and should not be cosidered as clinical evidence. | | Desyrel review by 50 year old male patient | | | Rating |
| Overall rating: | |   |
| Effectiveness: | | Highly Effective |
| Side effects: | | Mild Side Effects | | |
Treatment Info |
| Condition / reason: | | sleeplessness |
| Dosage & duration: | | 75 mg taken nightly, before bed for the period of 5 years |
| Other conditions: | | none |
| Other drugs taken: | | none | | |
Reported Results |
| Benefits: | | effective for falling and staying asleep |
| Side effects: | | slight dry mouth initially, but this subsided with use (3 - 4 weeks) |
| Comments: | | My problem was never falling asleep, it was waking up a few hours after falling asleep and being wide awake, my mind racing on thoughts of the day. This medicine allowed me to fall asleep quickly and stay sleeping throughout the night. My doctor told me it was originally marketed for anxiety/depression, but not widely prescribed for that once the sedative effects became known. (I can't imagine taking one of these in the morning, as a anti-depressant....It would surely knock me out.) The tablets are sold as 150 mg tablets. I split mine (75 mg) and for $4 at Target, I get two months worth. Highly recommend this for those who can't fall or stay asleep. |
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| | Desyrel review by 40 year old female patient | | | Rating |
| Overall rating: | | |
| Effectiveness: | | Highly Effective |
| Side effects: | | Mild Side Effects | | |
Treatment Info |
| Condition / reason: | | insomnia |
| Dosage & duration: | | 25-50 mg daily taken daily for the period of 6 months |
| Other conditions: | | none |
| Other drugs taken: | | none | | |
Reported Results |
| Benefits: | | It helped enormously with sleep and gave me quite vivid dreams upon occasion. I felt more relaxed in general and overall, quite happy - in fact, slightly euphoric ( it is a mild antidepressant). I was able to sleep at least eight hours and waking, I was alert and not sluggish. |
| Side effects: | | I felt a little unmotivated during the aftgernoons. Mornings, I was quite peppy but afternoon arrived and I felt sleepy, which is not normal for me. I also had headaches upon waking up and felt a bit unfocused. But overall, it was great! |
| Comments: | | I started with 25 mg a night, taken right before I wanted to fall asleep. This worked off and one but not always for my insomnia. I increased the dosage to 50 mg, which was highly effective. I took one 50 mg pill. I felt sluggish in the morning ONLY when I took a pill in the middle of the night, say 3 or 4 in the morning when I couldn't sleep. |
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| | Desyrel review by 29 year old female patient | | | Rating |
| Overall rating: | | |
| Effectiveness: | | Considerably Effective |
| Side effects: | | Mild Side Effects | | |
Treatment Info |
| Condition / reason: | | Poor sleep quality |
| Dosage & duration: | | 50 mg taken every night for the period of 6 months |
| Other conditions: | | Depression, anxiety |
| Other drugs taken: | | Celexa | | |
Reported Results |
| Benefits: | | Able to sleep throughout the night without waking up, not groggy in the morning. |
| Side effects: | | Dry mouth in the morning up on waking, dry eyes. |
| Comments: | | I take 50 mg at night 1/2 hour to 1 hour before I want to go to sleep. I stay asleep and don't wake up every hour like I did before starting it. I feel refreshed in the morning.
It does make my mouth pretty dry, especially first thing in the morning. I also have dry eyes I believe as a result of taking trazodone and it makes it difficult to wear contacts because of the dryness. |
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| | Desyrel review by 30 year old female patient | | | Rating |
| Overall rating: | | |
| Effectiveness: | | Highly Effective |
| Side effects: | | Moderate Side Effects | | |
Treatment Info |
| Condition / reason: | | Fibromyalgia |
| Dosage & duration: | | 5 mg taken 1 at bed time for the period of 1 month |
| Other conditions: | | tiredness, pain all over, migraines |
| Other drugs taken: | | zoloft | | |
Reported Results |
| Benefits: | | The medication took all my simptoms away completely! |
| Side effects: | | dry mouth. Lucid,vivid dreams. I cut the pill in fourths. A fourth of the pill still helped me sleep but, the wild dreams stopped. |
| Comments: | | Before taking this medication I was in constant pain. Every muscle in my body hurt. Legs, Back, arms. All my joints felt like they were being nawed away and had burning pain in ever muscle. I had a Migraine ever minute of every day. I was constantly exsausted. After taking it for one week, I felt like a new person. For me this was a miracle drug. I stopped taking it after a month and was pain free.
Since then, When ever my Fibromyalgia flares up... I take it for a week or more and it puts me back on a deep sleep pattern. I don't have to take it all the time. Just when I need it. |
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| | Desyrel review by 47 year old female patient | | | Rating |
| Overall rating: | | |
| Effectiveness: | | Considerably Effective |
| Side effects: | | Severe Side Effects | | |
Treatment Info |
| Condition / reason: | | Insomnia |
| Dosage & duration: | | 100 mg taken at night, once a day for the period of 5 years |
| Other conditions: | | Restless Legs |
| Other drugs taken: | | Mirapex | | |
Reported Results |
| Benefits: | | Held me in a deep sleep and my muscle pain subsided. |
| Side effects: | | Grooginess in the morning. Low libido. Water retention with edema. I didn't realize it was the medication that caused the edena until I quit taking it. When I started back on the medication I immediately swelled with edema.
Initially, it was working well, then I developed weight gain and terrible edema in my ankles and legs. Sometimes it didn't make me sleepy and I doubled my dose. It literally made me green with nausea, but I was able to sleep. |
| Comments: | | Lighter doses didn't work. My doctor gradually upped my dose until it was high enough to be effective. After 5 years, I decided to quit taking the medicine cold turkey. This was five months ago because of the low libido. I was a basket case, but it was out of my system in about four days. I later found out that you should go off it gradually with a doctor's supervision. Quitting, as I did, could cause you to be suicidal. It certainly was very difficult on me.
During my time drug free, I developed anger issues, depression and wanted to hurt myself. My sleep became light again, causing muscle pain from lack of rest.
After several months drug free, I restarted the medication for insomnia. Immediately my ankles and legs swelled greatly with edema. The water retention and edema is still there even after several days of discontinuing the medication. Maybe this is because I took a high dosage. I plan to go back to my doctor and try something different. |
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| | Desyrel review by 63 year old female patient | | | Rating |
| Overall rating: | | |
| Effectiveness: | | Highly Effective |
| Side effects: | | Severe Side Effects | | |
Treatment Info |
| Condition / reason: | | insomnia |
| Dosage & duration: | | 12.5 miligrams (dosage frequency: nightly) for the period of 6 weeks |
| Other conditions: | | anxiety |
| Other drugs taken: | | lorazepam, 5 mg, as needed, but I did not need it during the time I took the Trazedone | | |
Reported Results |
| Benefits: | | I did sleep reliably and without waking up in the middle of the night |
| Side effects: | | gradually got more and more sedated during the day. I functioned as though my IQ had dropped about 30 points. It kinda dumbed me down until I was screwing up at work--forgetting details, working slowly, not able to focus, etc. Also, I became very unassertive--not like me at all. When I realized what was happening, I went off it--and had a significant withdrawal reaction--shaking, extremely anxious, really weird. The withdrawal reaction subsided in a couple of days. |
| Comments: | | I was prescribed this drug for insomnia. My MD told me that it had been used as an anti-depressant, but didn't work well for that, but was good for insomnia. She originally prescribed 25 mg, and suggested I work up from that if 25 was ineffective. I am very drug sensitive, so when 25 mg. really knocked me out and I could barely wake up the next day, I cut the pills in half, and that seemed to work--but I just gradually got the effects mentioned above. I realized later that I had taken the same drug, higher dose, under the name Desyrel when I was 43 for post partum depression. It didn't work, and it made my blood pressure go down--the number I remember is 77/44. Same reaction--very sedated, confused, etc. I would never have taken it, but it was not identified as Desyrel, even on the pharmacy information sheet, so I didn't realize what it was. The weird thing about this drug (for me) is that it makes me so confused, but subtly, that I can't think clearly enough to realize what is happening until it gets pretty bad. I know I am very sensitive, and this may be a completely idiosyncratic reaction, but I don't think so. When I talked to the pharmacist about it she said "Yeah, some people just can't take it." I know people who take 300 mg a night--and they are fine!. |
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