You Don’t Want A New Insomnia Drug
Friday, July 4th, 2008 Subscribe To Our Feed
Although modern medication has done miraculous things in curing many illnesses and diseases, curing insomnia is not one of them. Although insomnia drugs exist, they are not cure-alls and rarely work. Insomnia drugs usually wind up being more dangerous than they’re worth. Responsible doctors only prescribe insomnia drugs in desperate cases, such as when insomnia has become so bad that the patient is hallucinating.
Danger, Danger
One of the reasons drug treatment for insomnia usually doesn’t work is that drugs don’t treat the cause of your insomnia. It’s like a Band-Aid at best. Sure, it’s great to have a Band-Aid, but wouldn’t it be better to get the neighborhood bully to stop pounding you so you wouldn’t need the Band-Aids in the first place? If you can’t stop the bully from beating you up, then no amount of Baid-Aids are going to help.
One of the more unusual and alarming side effects have been for the insomnia drug Ambien (zolpidem tartrate). A usual side effect is sleepwalking – however, in this insomnia drug, many people walked into their cars and went for a drive (technically called sleepdriving) – while fast asleep. A lot of accidents (and lawsuits) have incurred.
The most dangerous side effect of insomnia drugs is that you become addicted to them. This is not only expensive, but doesn’t guarantee you a good night’s sleep. So, you wind up taking more and more in an attempt to get drowsy. Your body forgets how to get drowsy on its own and then you are reliant on the pills. This often leads to death by overdose.
Even Merck Says No
Merck, one of the biggest pharmaceutical giants on the planet, even pulled the plug on developing a new insomnia drug, gabaxadol, as recently as March, 2007. Although the drug was good to get you to sleep, you could not stay asleep. Hallucinations and disorientation became commonplace for the test subjects. Rather than keep on trying different variations of the drug, Merck just gave up.
Sadly, there continues to be a huge demand for insomnia drugs, despite the fact they don’t work. For some, insomnia drugs are better than nothing. They would rather take expensive and addictive drugs rather than learn stress management techniques, change their diet or stop drinking alcohol. It’s estimated that by dropping work on gabaxadol, Merck lost a potential $500 million (US) in sales.
Insomnia is usually a symptom of a far more complex problem than just not sleeping. Unless you can work on the causes for your not sleeping, a new insomnia drug won’t help you in the long run.
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