Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Medication Treatment of Insomnia - Do the Risks Outweigh the Benefits?

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The newer generation of insomnia mediations, zaleplon (Sonata), zolpidem (Ambien), eszopiclone (Lunesta), and zopiclone (Imovane), or "Z" drugs, act on particular subsets of the GABA receptor. They are generally termed "non-benzodiazepine" medicines, but that the name is misleading, considering that they bind to the identical GABA-benzodiazepine receptor complex in the brain that the benzodiazepines and alcohol bind to. The distinction is that they bind to a diverse element of the identical receptor complicated. They have been marketed as having much less dependency and fewer side effects than the older generation of benzodiazepine drugs, and some argue that these drugs have less potential for abuse than the benzodiazepines.

Still, systematic scientific studies have not shown them to be additional reliable or secure than the benzodiazepines, despite the fact that they expense various occasions much more. For instance, pooling of information from three trials with a total of 96 individuals showed no distinction between benzodiazepines and zopiclone for time to fall asleep, even though benzodiazepine treated individuals slept 23 minutes longer. There were no variations among benzodiazepines and zopiclone in significant side effects (adverse events). And no distinction involving the numerous Z drugs for safety or efficacy has been established. Common side effects for all of these meds comprise of memory impairment, drowsiness, headache, dizziness, nausea, and nervousness. There is no evidence to date that the threat of dependency on the Z drugs is any less than for earlier classes of insomnia medications like the benzodiazepines.

So which of the Z drugs are the preferred? A latest critique by the UK National Institute for Clinical Evidence (Great) in 2004 showed no difference among the unique Z drugs (Sonata, Lunesta, Ambien, or Imovane) in efficacy, next day impairment, or risk of withdrawal or dependence. In addition, there were no advantages in terms of efficacy or side effects compared to benzodiazepines. At 1 hour Sonata has a considerably shorter half-life than Ambien (2.five hours) and Lunesta (6 hours), and is for that reason promoted as becoming linked with much less drowsiness the following day. Lunesta is a pure "mirror version" of the very same molecule of its parent zopiclone, and seems to have been developed as a marketing and advertising effort to leave behind the damaging marketing that was connected with studies of zopiclone (accomplished ahead of the most recent Z drugs were released) showing an boost in targeted visitors accidents with its use. Till research are carried out to especially tackle the concern, we have to presume that all of the Z drugs will at some point be located to be associated with an raise in driving accidents.

One particular scarier attainable side impact that has been noticed in individuals taking Ambien is sleepwalking. Ambien increases slow wave sleep, which has been related with sleepwalking. On March 8, 2006 The New York Instances reported a number of instances of folks obtaining up, walking around the house, cooking, and even driving. Scenarios of people today who got out of bed soon after taking Ambien (typically with a glass of wine), driving, and acquiring into car accidents, with definitely no memory of what occurred, were also reported. Some consumers got up in the middle of the evening and crashed their vehicles into parked autos, and then tried to drive away, later acquiring no memory of what occurred (Try to remember Patrick Kennedy?).

A single man on a trans-Atlantic flight took Ambien with two glasses of wine. In his rest, he tore off his clothes and threatened to kill himself and other people. As a result, the plane had to make an emergency landing. He had no memory of the incident.

Any amount of alcohol, even a glass, significantly increases your threat of having a unsafe sleep walking accident. Also, sleepwalking has been reported even more normally for Ambien perhaps since it holds 85% of the insomnia medication industry. It is really probable that other insomnia medicines can result in the similar side impact.

You can take a single of these medicines for a few days to get you through a dry patch of rest concerns. But if you have lasting rest disturbances cognitive behavioral treatment has been shown to be far better than drugs, and without the need of the side effects!

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