Trazodone withdrawal symptoms

Thanks for the reply. Error correction in my post-- my doses were in 50mg increments, not 25mg, so I topped out at 150mg before I stopped.

When I Googled "Trazodone withdrawal how long" I got multiple hits for some of the same websites, but each hit (that I looked at) was a different patient's account of their Trazodone withdrawal episode, and the vast majority of such accounts are what I'd call "worse than advertized." The total number of hits today was 822,000.

The prescription by doctors for Trazodone as a sleep aid is "off label." The pharmacology of Trazodone on humans is "unknown." One site revealed that combining Trazodone with Plavix raised the risk of heart attack for Plavix users (like me) from about 1% without Traz to a little over 10% when combined with Traz. My doctor didn't tell me that either.

This is crazy medical practice in my opinion, Traz should never be prescribed for sleep disorder. I wonder if it should even be on the market as an anti-depressant, not so much because of the withdrawal (I now understand most anti-depressants including SSRI's can cause withdrawal syndrone on discontinuance), but because the pharmacology isn't even understood, and the interactions with other drugs might explain why hundreds of thousands of Traz users report extreme withdrawal, likely because of interactions that haven't even been written about yet.

I have taken trazadone for 10 years for sleep.  Started at 100mg per day.  Lowered in steps of 25mg over a period of a year.  Then stopped.  For 8 days now, diarhea and insomina.  Diarrhea is not too bad but the insomina is horrible.  Anyone know how long this will last?

reposting because I want to put my email so I am notified if someone replies.

I have taken trazadone for 10 years for sleep.  Started at 100mg per day.  Lowered in steps of 25mg over a period of a year.  Then stopped.  For 8 days now, diarhea and insomina.  Diarrhea is not too bad but the insomina is horrible.  Anyone know how long this will last?

It takes about a month! Maybe a little longer since you have been on it for such a long time! After a month you should feel much better but there might be a feeling of "Not Feeling Right". Thats probably due to a lack of seratonin! Beware, in the 2nd week you might have overwhelming thoughts of suicide! Its intense and its crazy! Just know that it does go away and that better days are ahead so hang in there!!!!

Thanks, sounds like you have been through it.  I am on week 2.  They are doing a sleep study on me tonight.  Looking forward to that.

 

I've been taking trazodone 200mg for a year. Last night I didn't take them ts a high dose for me I'm 23 an 98 pounds I didn't take them last night an I feel like I'm going insane. I haven't slept yet tremors the whole time live in a small down an it takes a month to get into see a doctor. Can some one help me an let me know if what I'm doing isn't safe Thankyou

To the 23 year old.  Did you stop fast, going 200mg to zero in one night?  I think if I did that I would have serious trouble.  I weaned myself off it slowly.  Cut back 25mg slowly, until I got to zero.  Even then, I had terrible insomina. 

I took Traz for only a few weeks, and was never told about trazadone withdrawal; I had a bad case, and I was up to 150 mg. The withdrawal is bad as heroin withdrawal. Physical effects were disabling (constant diarhea, full body muscle aches. Phychological effects were still severe for another three weeks and tapered off after a few more months. Everyone is going to respond differently. I recommend reduce dosage gradually, expect emotional discomfort along the way, ask your doctor about diazepam to help you off of the trazadone, and get off trazadone only under supervision of a competent physician. Diazepam can be addictive, but in small doses as needed and not every day (six days on, six days off) has beeneffective for me for 30 years without significant drug tolerance build up (I take 5 - 10 mgs at most, sometimes as little as 2.5 mgs.)



Everyone is different. You may have been mis-diagnosed-- I was. I have no primary depression, but transient anxiety syndrone and sleep disorders. The Traz was prescribed as an "off-label" use as induce sleep. It had the opposite effect for me, like throwing gasoline on a fire. It's a dangerous drug in the hands of physicians who do not understand psychological disorders and often mistake primary anxiety for depression. Good luck, be patient with yourself and give yourself time to turn it around.

I was given it as "off label" sleep aid too.  I do think it helped me for many years.  50 to 100mg per night for 6 years worked very well.  But then it stopped working.  It always put me to sleep but I would wake up multiple times throughout the night.  It was hard to go back to sleep.  So I started taking 25 mg at night and kept 25 mg next to the bed so when I woke up, I could take another dose.  That worked for several months but then the waking up just increased.  I was waking up every hour.  I weaned off trazadone - that was hard.  Terrible insomia and diarhea.  I used lunesta to help get off the traz.  I am still waking up often but it has only been 7 weeks off traz and things are getting better.  Overall, I think Traz helpped me for many years and I am glad for it at the time.  I wish it still worked for me as I am very tired.  I am trying yoga now to help calm down my mind so I stop waking up all the time.  Has anyone had any luck with yoga?

I myself have gone through Trazodone withdrawl, and It was a NIGHTMERE!!!!! doctor's along with pharmacies like to say it isn't addictive and your body doesn't become chemically dependant on it, that is BS, I think they need to be a little bit more educated on these meds they handing out left and right, they don't even know what there doing to our bodies, and I don't even think most of them care.

I was given trazodone for 16 years "off label" for fibromyalgia.  I recently discovered that Trazodone can cause muscle aches and pains because it effects norepinephrine reuptake.  Norepinephrine is a vasoconstrictor and vasoconstrictors cause muscle pain and strokes.  Trazodone was actually making me sick, not helping me with the muscle pain for which it was prescribed.  I stopped cold turkey and was miserable for almost seven weeks.  I wondered if I had done permanent brain damage.  It is worth the withdrawal effect of extreme irritability, overreaction, nausea, diarrhea because within the first couple of weeks, the muscle pain which had been persistent for years began to subside.  Now that the irritability, overreaction and digestive issues are resolving, I am beginning to think clearly again, like I was able to think before I ever took Trazodone.  The 5 mg per month tapering-down is really good advice because the withdrawal is terrible.  Still, I just couldn't bring myself to take it anymore once I realized that it was causing the symptoms that it was supposed to be treating.  I now see that I was partially disabled for 16 years because of the Trazodone effects, not the fibromyalgia.  I don't know what I will do next because the Trazodone messed up my thinking so badly that it may have cost me my professional career, but it doesn't matter.  Whatever I do, I will be doing it without the increased muscle pain, fatigue, mental confusion, digestive distress--all from excess serotonin.  I am healthier now than I have been in 16 years.
Absolutely do not take Trazodone with Tramadol, which I was given for pain.  Tramadol is a SNRI (serotonin norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor) which can cause serotonin syndrome.  Also, do not combine Trazodone with other antidepressants for the same reason--serotonin syndrome.  It can be fatal.
I was searching all over the internet to find out if Trazodone causes permanent brain damage because I feared that I had permanent brain damage.  In my case, I now believe that Trazodone does not cause permanent brain damage along, but it does cause small vessel disease and I had a small stroke from a whiplash injury 2 years ago while I had high triglycerides.  High triglycerides are associated with Trazodone, which can cause small vessel disease and small vessel disease can cause strokes, especially when other factors, such as whiplash, are involved.
My advice is this:  do not take any medication for a prolonged period of time because you will become habituated to the side effects and think that the side effects are the condition, when the condition is actually the side effects.
Peace and joy to you~Recovering Now

I am very happy to find this thread ...... I want to share my experience with Trazodone

Back in 2005 I was very obsessed with fitness and I wanted to go below 10 percent body fat and in order to do that I started taking fat burners. For those of you guys who are not familiar with fat burners fat burners do burn great deal of fats by including alot of stimulants. The stimulants in the fat burner I was using was giving me anxiety and insomnia and later on I had problems breathing. When the breathing problem happened I went to the doctor and I noticed a poster that describes the exact symptoms I was having and says in the end try Zoloft for that. I told my doctor that I want to try Zoloft and he prescribed it for me. The Symptoms were going away except for insomnia which was getting worse so the doctor put me on 25 mg of Trazodone.

I started sleeping much better and I quit Trazodone in about six month. in 2007 I Lef the US and went to the Middle East(That is where I am from) and in 2008 I started having insomnia problems again.  My Insomnia is the Early Awakening Insomnia meaning that I could easily fall asleep but I wake up after 4-5 hours and I can't fall asleep again. I went to the pharmacy and the pharmacist gave me a non prescription medication called Motival( 0,5 mg fluphenazine hydrochloride and 10 mg nortriptyline)  .....I Used Motival for couple of years and then I started noticing that I am losing my libido although I always had very good libido my whole life and later on things got worse and I started having erection problems too..... I figured out that I have to quit immediately ... I went cold turkey and insomnia was back again so I thought about changing The Drug so I went for Zolam for a while and then I quit (After suffering) because it was very addictive.

I changed the medication again and I tried Zaleplon(Sonata in the US) and it worked great for a few days but it lost its effect after few days. So I started looking for Trazodone and it seemed that no pharmacist knew anything about it overhere so I did my research and I found out that it is sold under the name Trittico here. So I started taking it and went on it for a year and then I was like I have to go to see a doctor. I went to a doctor and the guy prescribed me cipralex (He said it is going to relax me and I will fall asleep easily). I did cipralex for a while and then I quit without going to the doctor because it completely killed my libido.

I went back to Trazodone for about 7 month and neither my libido or Erection problem was getting any better so a month and half ago I went cold Turkey.

In the begining I had slight side effects such as sleeping only 5.30 hours  a day instead of 8 and some other days I would sleep for 6 Hours but overall things were quite bearable for about a month and then the withdrawal symptoms started kicking in the past 10. I would sleep less each night and I had diarrhea too But one positive thing is that my libido was getting back and my erection was getting better but Two days ago I was about to go crazy and I decided yesterday to take 25 mg of Trazadone and I slept like as if i have never slept before (Of course the libido problem got worse again :) ).

I am going to stop taking Trazaone again and see if i could last for another month and half or not.

I have read the posts...I am so amazed.

I went away for the weekend, forgot the Trazodone at home...my doctor told me that it was non-habit forming, what a lie!  I have not slept in 48 hours, my heart feels like it is going to pound out of my chest and I do not know what to do.

I am so angry with my doctor and I can't stop crying.  I refuse to take the medication again...I feel like a junky, I don't know what to do...please help!

It takes time - weeks - for the insomina (and diahera) to stop.  Hang in there.  The bigger question is what to take instead of Trazadone.  I tried Lunesta but it doesn't work as well.  I am doing yoga - it has improved my sleep 10 or 20% - but it takes months to see benefits of yoga for my sleep disorder.

 

Sillysally,
Did you ever get a response? I'm just now quitting trazadone after 3 years and am having the same problems. It's really scaring me.
-RJR