I have been on Atripla for just over two years now,and I have undergone a complete personality change to the point where I use to be extro-verted and now, I am very intro-verted. I get easily agitated and aggravated, and have undergone many periods of insominia. I doing all the right things to stay alive, but Im not really living anymore. I am at my wit's end ! What do or can I do ?

Hello and thanks for your post.

The first thing you should do is discuss your ongoing symptoms with your health care provider. Indeed, I'm concerned that if this has been going on for two years that the communications and evaluations may have been missing something.

It's likely that your symptoms could be related to the efavirenz component of the Atripla (though it is worth considering other possibilities, such as depression or sleep disorder). If so, your health care team could consider a switch from the efavirenz to an alternative medication- this would mean unbundling Atripla into Truvada with the new agent.

Which medication to switch to requires more information than you've provided, but could include nevirapine (Viramune, a different NNRTI), a boosted protease inhibitor or the integrase inhibitor, raltegravir (Isentress).

I hope this is a start. Please feel free to write back with any follow up.

BY