I've been experimenting with cyproheptadine ( Periactine ) as a sleep aid for my insomnia, as it's available OTC here , with some interesting and unexpected effects.
It did help with sleep , working even better than doxylamine ( wich is one of the very few things that works pretty well on my insomnia) . The effect is very delayed however , taking at least 4 hours before kicking in , and, at 4mg dosage , made me sleep for at least 10 hours the first time, with lots of grogginess upon waking that lasted during the day. When i reduced the dosage to 2 mg , there were less grogginess upon waking, wich dissipated pretty quickly after a few hours.
However the most interesting and unexpected effect was the very noticeable reduced anxiety it brought . At first , i attributed it to the fact that i simply slept pretty well and was feeling more rested ( a state that is very rare for me , as i have a long history of insomnia and CFS among other things , wich i will develop later in a seperate thread ). But this was a very distinct anxiolytic effect that i have never felt before on other occasions where i also had satisfactory sleep. And it was not due to some sedation left-over effect , as after 1 or 2 hours after waking up, the grogginess dissipated and i was feeling quite awake and concentrated.
I knew that cyproheptadine was a sedating anti-histaminic ( it's official use is as an antihistamine ) and anticholinergic ( same as doxylamine ) , but when i did a bit of research on it , i found that it was also a very potent 5-HT2a antagonist , and also somewhat 5-HT2c antagonist too. In fact it seems even more potent than amitryptiline (and probably than trazodone) in it's antagonism of 5-HT2a while being actually less antihistaminic. Cyproheptadine is actually used to reverse the "serotonin syndrome" that can happen with SSRI's.
5-HT2a and 5-HT2c are both linked to anxiety .
It's been 4 days now that i've been taking it ( first day was at 4 mg, then following 3 days at 2 mg) , and the anxiolytic effect is still going on , and it feels very different form any other anxiolytic substance i've taken before ( it includes a long list of both pharmaceutical stuff such as benzo's , as well as supplements like Kava , L-Theanine , Bacopa , etc..).
It's a bit difficult to describe , as english is not my first language , but i can have the same thoughts that would usually provoke various symptoms of anxiety , and nothing would happen , no agitation , no generalised feeling of "fear". And it's very different from the anxiolityc effect that comes from flattening of emotions ( wich i got when i was on SSRI's a long time ago). In fact i can feel all my emotions intact , it's just the "fear" component that seems reduced.
Anybody here with a similar experience with cyproheptadine ?
PS : By the way , Hello :-) I'm a long time lurker, been reading this forum for quite a while but never posted before. I've had a long experience with various supplements for many years now as part of a long history of battling with CFS and it's various ramifications, with more or less success. I will probably open another thread in the Regimen section to relate my experience with supplemennts i'm taking now, and before.
