My brother has bipolar with psychotic features.
He has recently just got out of jail after a bakeract gone wrong. While in jail he began tapering up on Seroquel from 50mg x2 a day to now 300mg x2 a day and the difference in his behavior is night and day. (less mania, less paranoia, less delusional thinking, etc) He has adjusted and now the meds no longer make him tired.
He had also began taking lexapro for depression and anxiety. After getting out he decided to drop the lexapro after about 2 months because he said it wasn’t helping. He asked his psych for something else for anxiety that wasn’t a benzo…and his psych sent him home with an ambien script to take in the morning and midday, along with his seroquel x2 daily. I am floored.
I have never heard of a professional prescribing ambien for day use to combat anxiety.
This particular psych already has some odd behaviors (he will schedule appointments and then call 5-6 hours late, sometimes after hours as late as 10pm)
Has anyone else heard of this being used for those who have bipolar and anxiety? I can’t find any research on this, and everything that comes up warns against using ambien during the day.