How Many Ambien Patients Get Up At Night And Remember Nothing?

May 11, 2006

Main Category: Sleep Disorders News

Article 16 Mar 2006 - 16:00pm (PDT)

Reports are growing of patients taking insomnia medication Ambien,

getting up at night, eating loads of food, going back to bed, and

remembering nothing of the event next morning.

Sanofi-Aventis' Ambien is the most popular drug in the world for

people who suffer from insomnia. In the USA alone, 11 billion

nights' worth of Ambien are consumed each year. 30 million people in

the USA take sleep medications - a nearly 50% increase since 2000.

Perhaps this increase in the consumption of sleep medication may

explain the rise in the number of people reporting this bizarre side-

effect.

Sanofi-Aventis says sleepwalking is a very rare side effect of

Ambien.

However, as the company has no statistics on sleepwalking it

is unlikely to know how rare the event really is.

There have also been more patients reporting short-term memory loss.

A rising number of patients are getting up in the morning, still

feeling the effects of the drug, getting behind the wheel and

crashing their vehicles.

Drugs for insomnia are heavily advertised in the USA, where it is

allowed to

target prescription drugs adverts at patients.

How common these problems of sleepwalking and short-term memory loss

are is difficult to know. The FDA's reporting system is done on a

voluntary basis.

Doctors stress that a patient should not stop taking Ambien

abruptly, the process has to be gradual, otherwise there are risks

of serious problems, including seizures.

At Medical News Today we are flooded with patientss opinions on

Ambien and Lunesta. The main theme seems to be that doctors try to

get their patients off Ambien because of dependency - but many

patients don't like the metallic aftertaste of Lunesta.

Written by: Christian Nordqvist

Editor: Medical News Today

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