My Experience With Cyproheptadine

[Peatri Dish]

This is just a report on my one week experimentation with cyproheptadine. I got some from all day chemist. It arrived last week. I started with 1/8 pill an worked up to 1 1/2. I had an overall feeling of well being at first and was pretty psyched about that. But I started noticing some issues around day 3. At that point I was at 1/2 pill so I thought increasing might help. Anyhow, it was sort of a hopeless feeling in the morning and I thought it might be the cyproheptadine leaving my body. Also, I was noticing slower intestinal motility. Another weird thing was the way I responded to coffee: I would feel this tightness in my head like my skin wasn't going to be able to accommodate a stretching that was happening. This was accompanied by a tightness in the jaw which was very uncomfortable. One of the reasons I was trying cyproheptadine was for TMJ. I found that it was worse on the cyproheptadine. Very strange. The other thing was that while it made me groggy my sleep was a bit fitful and dream filled. I also started to notice a puffiness in my face after about five days. This would last until early afternoon. Estrogen? Anyhow after my intestinal motility slowed to the point of one BM per day and I had put on six pounds in eight days I decided I wasn't ready for cyproheptadine! I've got 20 lbs yet to loose so that's not gonna fly! To be fair some of it was appetite but I think some of it was constipation too. I don't like the feeling of goin once a day. Very heavy feeling.
So last night I just skipped it. I knew I would get a headache if I didn't taper but I didn't mind too much. I slept deeply 15 hours and was relieved. I know Haidut calls it a wonder drug and I respect his opinion but it only left me wondering! Any thoughts?

 

[Anonymous]

I had a bad experience with cypro. I plan on retrying it at some point down the road. You can find my thread about it.

I was desperate for help and needed something. My doctor recommended I try amitriptyline. I was a bit apprehensive so I emailed ray to ask him his thoughts. He said that he believes it is safe and says it is similar in structure to cypro. Also he believe it reduces serotonin. It is used to treat IBS, causes weight gain and appetite increase and a side effect is constipation. It also has antihistamine effects. Fast forward 2 months on this med I feel great. I'm not depressed or anxious. I enjoy being around people again. I eat more and my digestion is excellent. While cypro is not my wonder drug Amitriptyline certainly is. I've learned that you shouldn't evaluate these meds for atleast 2 months. Sometimes it gets worse before it gets better because stress hormones that were elevating your mood become supressed. So normal metabolism must take over. You may experience some things that convince you its not working but you need to give the time body to adapt. I strongly recommend amitriptyline. I've made more progress in the past 2 months than I made in 3 years. It took a while to destroy my health and it's taking longer than I expected to heal. But things are finally moving in the right direction and every day is better than the last, which makes life a lot more exciting rather than the hopeless state you feel when serotonin is high.

Good luck!

 

[Brian]

I'm taking cypro right now. The first week my digestion slowed down, but now on the second week it is speeding up fast. Pulse is in the mid 80's. I feel relaxed and positive. In my case I just needed a full week for the benefits to appear. I started off taking 0.5 mg per day, but now I'm taking 1mg three times per day.

I plan on taking it at this dose until I feel satisfied.

 

[Dean]

Did you guys find cypro. useful as an anti-histamine? I've seen a lot of accounts where it didn't seem to help much in that regard. I need an anti-histamine; so if cypro. doesn't do the job, I'm wondering if it can be taken at the same time with another anti-histamine (loratadine, etc.).

 

[Peatri Dish]

Yes!
I think it worked much better than the Benadryl that I was using before I started it.

 

[cantstoppeating]

This is just a report on my one week experimentation with cyproheptadine. I got some from all day chemist. It arrived last week. I started with 1/8 pill an worked up to 1 1/2. I had an overall feeling of well being at first and was pretty psyched about that. But I started noticing some issues around day 3. At that point I was at 1/2 pill so I thought increasing might help. Anyhow, it was sort of a hopeless feeling in the morning and I thought it might be the cyproheptadine leaving my body. Also, I was noticing slower intestinal motility. Another weird thing was the way I responded to coffee: I would feel this tightness in my head like my skin wasn't going to be able to accommodate a stretching that was happening. This was accompanied by a tightness in the jaw which was very uncomfortable. One of the reasons I was trying cyproheptadine was for TMJ. I found that it was worse on the cyproheptadine. Very strange. The other thing was that while it made me groggy my sleep was a bit fitful and dream filled. I also started to notice a puffiness in my face after about five days. This would last until early afternoon. Estrogen? Anyhow after my intestinal motility slowed to the point of one BM per day and I had put on six pounds in eight days I decided I wasn't ready for cyproheptadine! I've got 20 lbs yet to loose so that's not gonna fly! To be fair some of it was appetite but I think some of it was constipation too. I don't like the feeling of goin once a day. Very heavy feeling.
So last night I just skipped it. I knew I would get a headache if I didn't taper but I didn't mind too much. I slept deeply 15 hours and was relieved. I know Haidut calls it a wonder drug and I respect his opinion but it only left me wondering! Any thoughts?

You have two options:

-lower serotonin directly
-lower serotonin indirectly

Cyproheptadine lowers serotonin directly. It works great for some people, but for the people it doesn't, they can try lowering it indirectly. To lower it indirectly, increase dopamine via drugs like bromocriptine or lisuride, which also have the effects of reducing prolactin and estrogen.

Since estrogen, prolactin and serotonin are linked, lowering any one lowers the others so you have a few options of how to attack the problem if one route doesn't work.

 

[tara]

My guess about part of it:
Cyproheptadine -> less serotonin in gut -> reduced gut peristalsis if it was dependent on serotonin -> more or less constipation, depending on the state of your gut and thyroid function -> increased endotoxin absorption -> not feeling great?

Cascara sagrada -> improved gut motility -> reduced endotoxin absorption -> feeling better?

 

[answersfound]

In my experience, I find that while on Cyproheptadine you get this, wiped out, hopeless feeling. This is probably why it was phased out by the second generation antihistamines. It can make you extremely depressed. I think the benefits are not seen until the drug completely leaves the system, because then you sort of get this euphoria as the body returns to homeostasis. Also, I find that after taking cyproheptadine I have absolutely no desire to drink alcohol. If I drink it, it gives me an extremely sad, depressed feeling, probably because stress hormones are already so low.

 

[jyb]

In my experience, I find that while on Cyproheptadine you get this, wiped out, hopeless feeling.

In my experience it's very hard to promote good mood with pharma drugs or even supplements, and never worked beyond a few days. I tried cypro, lisuride, tianeptine... Not useful for that particular purpose. A *small* dose caffeine/nicotine/alcohol seem to work better in my experience and studies suggest a pro dopamine effect of these at low dose. On a daily basis I use coffee mostly, a light coffee is enough for me to experience a small but pleasant mood upgrade.

 

[Peatri Dish]

I just wanted to give an update on the cyproheptadine log:
I had a dead tooth pulled in early August. The dentist gave me clindamycin. At first it was great. My stomach hadn't been that flat since high school! Then the diarrhea started. It continued for six weeks. I tried everything peaty or otherwise. I finally gave in and started cyproheptadine. At first it did nothing but increase my weight, so I stopped it. Then I stopped acetazolamide and began cyproheptadine and it finally stopped. It's been about two weeks. Between no acetazolamide and starting cyproheptadine I have put on ten pounds in about two weeks. But I feel better overall. At first the cyproheptadine made me a little moody, irritable maybe. But, I started theanine to offset that and this seems to have done the trick. The combination makes me feel calmer and I have a sense of well being both physically and emotionally. I feel like the antibiotics were positive even though it set off the diarrhea at first. I think my gut is improving and I am really focusing on that now. I am adding BCAA and threonine,beta alanine, taurine and glycine. This combo is for gut and also for weight loss. I was on acetazolamide for a year and whenever I get off it I immediately put on at least 5 pounds. So, I'm sure some of that ten pounds is water weight. This diarrhea situation forced me to give up the acetazolamide. I had been trying but kept going back to it. I need to find a solution to the water weight that is suitable for long term. The acetazolamide taxes the liver. Hopefully I will only take the cyproheptadine for a month or so. I am taking 12-16 mg a day.

 

[tomisonbottom]

I just wanted to give an update on the cyproheptadine log:
I had a dead tooth pulled in early August. The dentist gave me clindamycin. At first it was great. My stomach hadn't been that flat since high school! Then the diarrhea started. It continued for six weeks. I tried everything peaty or otherwise. I finally gave in and started cyproheptadine. At first it did nothing but increase my weight, so I stopped it. Then I stopped acetazolamide and began cyproheptadine and it finally stopped. It's been about two weeks. Between no acetazolamide and starting cyproheptadine I have put on ten pounds in about two weeks. But I feel better overall. At first the cyproheptadine made me a little moody, irritable maybe. But, I started theanine to offset that and this seems to have done the trick. The combination makes me feel calmer and I have a sense of well being both physically and emotionally. I feel like the antibiotics were positive even though it set off the diarrhea at first. I think my gut is improving and I am really focusing on that now. I am adding BCAA and threonine,beta alanine, taurine and glycine. This combo is for gut and also for weight loss. I was on acetazolamide for a year and whenever I get off it I immediately put on at least 5 pounds. So, I'm sure some of that ten pounds is water weight. This diarrhea situation forced me to give up the acetazolamide. I had been trying but kept going back to it. I need to find a solution to the water weight that is suitable for long term. The acetazolamide taxes the liver. Hopefully I will only take the cyproheptadine for a month or so. I am taking 12-16 mg a day.

Are you still on cypro? Did the weight come off?