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Dr. Andrew Rynne
MD
Dr. Andrew Rynne

Family Physician

Exp 50 years

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What Causes Sleeplessness And Restless Sleep At Night?

son on lithium, 600 mg & lamictal, 150 mg. Off seroquel because of limb movement/pain and not sleeping. trazodone didn t work. seroquel didn t work and made things worse. ambien makes him high, like an LSD trip. But nothing gets him sleep. Fitbit monitor records sometimes 20 awakenings per night and actual sleep numbers of two, four, or six hours. Plus, may take 3 hrs to fall asleep. Melatonin not helping, 6 mg. Light therapy started, but only on 3rd day. Caffeine nixed. Sleep study scheduled, but can t be seen til mid Jan. Is it the meds? Is it something else entirely (not related to bipolar diagnosis)? He vomited last Friday, and again last night/early this morning. Help!
Fri, 26 Aug 2016
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Psychiatrist 's  Response
Hello! Well, sir the information that you have given is not sufficient to guide you through what to do next, like your son's age, number of years of illness, duration of untreated period, what other medications he was put on and how well has he responded to the medications and for how long has he been having difficulty in sleeping.,etc. with the available information I think the sleeplessness and disturbed sleep could be because of a couple of factors, the illness( bipolar disorder) itself or if there was a change in medication or dosage of medication in the past few days following which he has disturbed sleep, daytime sleeping. Since he is on lithium its important not to take the vomiting lightly, that could be one of the early sign of lithium toxicity, the reason why he is waking up several times (is it because of increased frequency of urination?).The most important thing to do right away is to do a serum lithium level and consult your psychiatrist at the earliest, rule out this possibility first and then we can look for other possible causes.
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What Causes Sleeplessness And Restless Sleep At Night?

Hello! Well, sir the information that you have given is not sufficient to guide you through what to do next, like your son s age, number of years of illness, duration of untreated period, what other medications he was put on and how well has he responded to the medications and for how long has he been having difficulty in sleeping.,etc. with the available information I think the sleeplessness and disturbed sleep could be because of a couple of factors, the illness( bipolar disorder) itself or if there was a change in medication or dosage of medication in the past few days following which he has disturbed sleep, daytime sleeping. Since he is on lithium its important not to take the vomiting lightly, that could be one of the early sign of lithium toxicity, the reason why he is waking up several times (is it because of increased frequency of urination?).The most important thing to do right away is to do a serum lithium level and consult your psychiatrist at the earliest, rule out this possibility first and then we can look for other possible causes.