Sleep Dynamic Therapy

Archive for the ‘Sleep Drugs’ Category

Two weeks later, and I’ve yet to see one thoughtful discussion about what underlying sleep problems might have contributed to his insomnia and ultimately to his demise. On the one hand, the severe insomnia he appeared to suffer from as described in the tabloids would almost suggest bipolar or a manic-like experience. On the other hand, there is no discussion as to whether he was known to suffer any sleep breathing symptoms.

Tens of thousands of people take too many drugs to sleep at various times in their experiences with medications. The vast majority do not die! What distinguishes those who do not survive? The two most likely candidates are a breathing problem or a cardiac arrhythmia, the latter perhaps brought on by a breathing disorder that drops oxygenation to critically low levels.

The other questions that should have been asked are where did he get the pills, and did any of his prescribing physicians ever refer him to a sleep specialist?

Do you think someone should have taken Heath Ledger’s sleep complaints seriously? Based on the multiple drugs that allegedly caused his overdose, I doubt anyone took his sleep problems seriously!

In this recent letter to the editor in the Annals of Clinical Psychiatry, we respond to Dr. Rosenberg’s critique, which outlines some of the weaknesses in medications for the treatment of sleep maintenance insomnia (middle of the night awakenings). As we continue to find in our research and clinical work, most of these patients suffer awakenings due to sleep-disordered breathing. Therefore, testing these patients with overnight sleep studies in the sleep lab often yields valuable insights into the patient’s underlying sleep fragmentation and may lead to dramatic treatment gains, if the insomniac chooses to treat the sleep breathing condition.

The greater concern I have about these types of warnings is that they rarely discuss the limited efficacy of these drugs in general. They’re not generally ideal solutions for long-term treatment of chronic insomnia.

Just discovered an old article where doctors criticize ads for lunesta claiming that they overstate the actual results of the studies. See article here