Beware of ’sleep-driving’ Pills
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) did not give the exact cases of sleep-driving. But neurology chief Dr. Russell Katz said that the agency uncovered more than a dozen reports linking insomnia drugs to sleep-driving. Katz believes that more are going uncounted. Katz and other federal health officials warned individuals about the strange side effects.
The Associated Press (AP) earlier reported that all prescription sleeping pills may sometimes cause sleep-driving. Sleep-driving became a hot headliner when Rep. Patrick Kennedy crashed his car into a security barrier outside the US Capitol. The crash happened to Kennedy after taking Ambien, an insomnia drug; and Phenergan, an anti-nausea pill that also acts as a sedative. Kennedy said he had no memory of the crash. However, he pleaded guilty to under the influence of prescription drugs. Kennedy was sentenced to court-ordered drug treatment and a year’s probation.
Ambien isn’t the only insomnia drug that can cause sleep-driving - any of the class known as “sedative-hypnotics” can, Katz stressed. Other drugs include Butisol sodium, Carbrital, Dalmane, Doral, Halcion, Lunesta, Placidyl, Prosom, Restoril, Rozerem, Seconal, and Sonata.
To lower the risk of a sleep-driving episode, Katz advised patients to never take any prescription insomnia drug along with alcohol or any other sedating drug. He added, Also, don’t take higher-than-recommended doses of the pills. We really want people to know these things can occur, and these sleep behaviors can be perhaps to a large extent mitigated by behaviors the patients can control.”
Fewer than one in 1,000 patients in studies of Ambien reported somnambulism - a scientific term that includes the sleep behaviors flagged by the FDA. This is according to Lisa Kennedy, a spokeswoman for manufacturer Sanofi-Aventis SA and she is also not related to the congressman. The side effect has remained similarly rare since widespread sales began, she added.
It is said that sleep-driving is more complicated and risky than sleepwalking. Getting up in the middle of the night and going behind the wheel to drive with no memory is not a thing to ignore. The efficiency of Hawk brakes or any car system, for that matter, could not preclude the perilous nature of sleep-driving.
Given the millions of prescriptions for insomnia drugs, Katz called the problem rare, and said he was unaware of any deaths. The FDA ordered a series of precautions last Wednesday to avoid the ill effects of insomnia drugs.
Some of the insomnia drugs may be riskier than others hence the FDA recommended that manufacturers conduct clinical trials to figure that out. Later this year, all prescription sleeping pills will start arriving with special brochures dubbed “Medication Guides.” The guide will specifically point out in an easy to follow language the risks of the pills for patients.
