MIL's doctor added Trazodone. Any input would be appreciated.

My mom was recently prescribed trazadone to help with sleep issues due to sun downing not sleeping and wandering independent home facility at night. She also was experiencing extreme anxiety of placement to independent living after living on her own most of her life.

Trazadone has helped with anxiety she’s settling in and not as combative verbally as before, but still experiencing sleep issues. I’m conferring with her doctor now to see if adjustments need to be made to her dosage. Due to dementia she was put on a lower dosage to prevent other side affects. Not sure If mom will be kept on trazadone but from what I’ve heard from others is trazadone works well for some but for others sleep issues may continue.

I have been taking 100 mg of trazadone for over a year and getting a good result. I am asleep in about 20 minutes and awaken refreshed in the AM 7 hours later.

I use Trazadone for sleep and find it quite helpful and without side effects.

I took Trazadone for a few years for insomnia. It really doesn't work that well for me, but I also have a huge tolerance. It seemed safe when I was taking it and never had any complications with it. I do know a lot of people on it for mental disorders and insomnia and they don't have any problems either.

Trazadone is a first line drug for sleep aid, even though it is an antidepressant. It is used at many dosages and for a lot of different things--mother has taken it as a sleep aid for years and years. Who care if she is 'addicted' to it? That plus melatonin and she sleeps w/o waking for 14 hours.

I think we need to quit throwing out that 'addiction' label when someone is older--so many of us need drugs to get through life---am I addicted to Zoloft? Yeah, I guess, but the 'goods' outweigh the 'bads' by a ton.

And I don't think anyone's epitaph states 'not addicted to ANYTHING'. Many drugs are helpful in making life liveable.

My mother was on a high dosage of trazadone for years. She has always had sleep disorders. However she started having fainting spells, falls during the night, erratic blood pressure and multiple runs to the hospital. After doing much research, my sibling and I concluded it was the primary cause of many problems she was having. She loved this drug but we insisted she be removed and she agreed. Now on ambien CR and those problems are long gone. She was also addicted to this Trazadone at 80 and had been taking it for 10 years. IMO it is not a drug for elderly due to fall risks as well.

Trazodone, when prescribed for me as a sleep aid, made me feel like a total zombie for the entire following day. Just a heads up, in case your mom seems even more out of it than usual; it could be due to the Trazodone.

Best of luck!

I was told that of everything possible to use...trazodone is the least stress on the liver.

my Mom used ambient...but had to quit that once she was put on all the drugs for Afib and stroke risk.

there was already so much wrong....I doubt the trazodone made anything better or worse. But it did work to help her sleep at night without the ambient