Posted 1/19/2011 5:03 AM (GMT 0)
Hi All,
My doctor recently prescribed 2mg Melatonin at night to aid with sleep, used it last night and found I awoke feeling mildly alert, which is a huge improvement for me. I took one with my evening meal tonight, and immediately slept until 2am (it's now 5am) - not ideally what I was after but it works.
Has anyone else had any more long-term experience? Although in the USA/Canada Melatonin is freely available OTC, in England it is strictly a prescription med, and any treatment for a patient under 55 is considered off-licence, and my GP actually couldn't legally prescribe it when I asked (was prescribed by a pain clinic dr).
It does seem logical that fatigue could be caused by a severely disrupted circadian rhythm, given I can't sleep without chemical assistance due to both pain, and the fact that 24 hours isn't enough - so I'm optimistic melatonin an hour before bed at a regular time will improve things - I just want some long-term perspectives as the prescription I got was only for a 2 weeks supply, and I'm considering importing some from a health-store in a country in which it is OTC.
Which brings me onto question two - something called 5-HTP. I've had a read around the literature, and it seems to hold some potential for treating Fibromyalgia, and again, it is available in many countries as a "dietary supplement" - the studies are not of a particularly rigorous quality, so I don't know how much of this is pedaling by health-food companies, but has anyone used, or heard of the use of 5-HTP for fibromyalgia, chronic myofascial pain, or even the likes of depression? (Saw a study on this, and it seems to be that there's an unavoidable link with depression - considering many FMS drugs are actually just anti-depressants, i.e. Amitriptyline, Celebrex - which sounds like a breakfast cereal.)
Thanks for any insight, I don't post much around here but I'm fairly active in the RA forum.
Jay