Doxylamine Succinate, Anti-Serotonin?

[Captain_Coconut]

When I am having trouble sleeping and glycine, magnesium, sugar, salt etc are not effective I will sometimes use around 12.5 mg Doxylamine Succinate to help me sleep. After seeing it mentioned a little on this board I am now wondering if I would see some benefit in taking small 4mg doses as part of my nightly routine. What is the consensus here, is it thought to be anti-serotonin, at the least not pro-serotonin? What is your experience / opinion of it? I can not find anything explicitly saying if it helps lower serotonin, however I see that it can be used for morning sickness - and many other drugs for morning sickness are 5ht antagonists...

Cheers!

 

[Blossom]

I'm not sure if it's anti serotonin but it's definitely an antihistamine. I use it sometimes for sleep especially when working odd shifts. I use 1/2 of a 25 mg pill but I think @charlie might have had good results from an even lower dose.

 

[Captain_Coconut]

Thanks Blossom. Yeah I sometimes will wake up groggy and wish I took less than 12.5 mg but the pills are so small it is hard to take much less. I will have to invest in a scale if I want to take smaller amounts. Anecdotally I am now connecting something personal which I had not thought of for decades, when I was a teenager there were several times I was extremely depressed and would go days trying to not be depressed but would reach a point where I just wanted to sleep it off - my solution was to drink 3 doses of nyquil and sleep it off as long as I could.... I recall I would usually wake up feeling half as depressed than the day before. I see that doxy is in nyquil, not sure if was in the 90s though... Perhaps the uplift of mood was from blocking out serotonin? It definitely helped me through some bad spots.

 

[Blossom]

After experimenting with doxylamine succinate to induce sleep (6 mg), I've noticed that my ability to focus has increased tremendously, mostly due to diminsihed anxiety.

Psychiatrists prescribe antihistamines as anti-anxiety alternatives to benzodiazepines or SSRI's, and haidut has mentioned the ability of anticholinergics to improve ADHD symptoms considerably and result in a net lower serotonin. Appetite has also increased with the addition of doxylamine, similar to cyproheptadine.

Doxylamine - Wikipedia
It looks like it's somewhat antimuscarinic (anticholinergic) in action although less than histamine. It seems like it has little effect on serotonin though. Remember I'm not a scientist. I just googled doxylamine mechanism of action.
Perhaps just escaping the suffering by sleeping is part of what helped you feel better. @DaveFoster has a thread about it being a cognitive enhancer quoted above.

 

[charlie]

I take it as needed, and if I have to take it for a run I make sure to cycle off it as soon as possible. Always taking the smallest amount possible, doesn't take much for me. Pretty powerful stuff. Not sure about the serotonin aspect of it. If it does decrease serotonin then Peat said it's probably not good to take anti-serotonin substances for extended times.

 

[Birdie]

I was taking it (on and off) for a few years for CFS and Fibro. I think I read that you couldn't lie down for an hour after taking it?? Something about possible esophageal problems. That made it seem too inconvenient and scared me off. I'd like to try it again. I'd tried doxy and minocycline. I think all the tetracyclines have this possible problem.

If I take it again, I'll look that up but maybe somebody can clarify? I mean if it's taken for sleep, and you have to wait an hour, that's an impediment. But maybe I remember it wrong.

Another thing I seem to remember is that calcium will block tetracyclines. Something about waiting 4 hours for milk??
Well, anyway, I'm dealing with a Brown Recluse bite so a little foggy in the brain here.

 

[Birdie]

It sounds like Doxy might help with my bite situation. Am taking amoxi right now.

 

[Blossom]

@Birdie, I think you might be thinking of the antibiotic doxycycline but the OP is talking about doxylamine the antihistamine/OTC sleeping aid.