UPDATE 2-Kennedy case puts Ambien again under spotlight

http://today.reuters.com/investing/financeArticle.aspx?type=bondsNews&storyID=2006-05-05T213414Z_01_N05437139_RTRIDST_0_PEOPLE-KENNEDY-AMBIEN-UPDATE-2.XML

CHICAGO, May 5 (Reuters) - U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy's statement that he used Sanofi-Aventis's sleep drug Ambien to explain how he was involved in a late-night car crash has revived questions over whether the drug causes side effects like sleepwalking and binge eating.

The Rhode Island Democrat had also taken the prescription anti-nausea drug phenergan before crashing his car into a security barrier in Washington early on Thursday morning. No one was hurt in the incident, but Kennedy said on Friday he was checking himself into a program for further treatment of a chronic addiction to prescription pain pills.

"I simply do not remember getting out of bed, being pulled over by police or being cited for three driving infractions," Kennedy told a news conference. "I am deeply concerned about my reaction to the medication and my lack of knowledge of the accident that evening."

On Thursday, Kennedy said that after a series of votes on Wednesday night he took the prescribed amount of phenergan, which treats gastroenteritis, as well as Ambien. He said he had not consumed alcohol.

<snip>

"We are seeing pretty extreme expressions of sleepwalking -- like getting into a car and driving," said Michel Cramer-Bornemann, a researcher at the clinic. "And when we remove the Ambien, it is resolved."

...more...

Mods: I realize there is Patrick Kennedy thread regarding him going into rehab. This changes the story focus - to the efficacy of the drugs that were prescribed instead of some "drug problem". Do as you will and thanks for all you do. UIA

He said they (in the Bush administration) were "all taking it."

People do some crazy stuff on that drug. It's about time some sunlight is shed on it.

n/t

You've actually been carrying on a passionate midnight love affair with your beer-gutted, Freeper neighbor. He can't believe his good luck.

there seems to be a crescendo of anti-ambien news stories. the drug saved my sanity when i wasn't able to fall asleep. quite frankly, i think pat kennedy was mixing alcohol with his pain killers and sleeping pills. you can get some very nasty reactions when ANY drug is mixed with booze... paranoia, depression, recklessness and amnesia are all probable contraindications.

bottom line, i hope he gets it together in rehab and then seriously work a 12 step as if his life depended on it.

and even sleepdriving. I know that when I take it, the last 20 minutes before I go to sleep are gone from memory, and on several occasions I've done things (like post on DU) during the blank period.

But I've not driven and crashed into things, fortunately.

Redstone

He's seeing a lot of this weird-ass behavior recently. The number of sleep-aid prescriptions has skyrocketed over the last few years, led mostly by Ambien (which is available as a generic all around the world), now joined by Lunesta.

Hundreds of millions of users -- and now the oddness emerges. Part of it is people who don't allow the 7-8 window you need to have to use it safely, but part of it is . . . ?

it left a TERRIBLE taste in my mouth that lasted all the next day. But, each time I took it, I woke up at 4 in the morning, not fully awake, but enough to be annoyed. My partner tried it too, with the same results. I would NOT recommend this to anyone. It's very expensive and horrible.

$35 for 30 2mg pills . . .

But I've had zero negative side effects. Puts me to sleep quickly, I get up at my regular time in a unfuzzy state, and I have no taste-in-the-mouth issues.

It's disquieting to hear of such different results.

Isn't ambien a newer drug...?

The point being - He probably has bigger issues that just Ambien...

and have been sober for 14 years. It wasn't until I was sober, that the underlying mental illness was diagnosed...for which I've been taking prescribed drugs, for the past 12 years. I just started a brand new drug last week... would you care to opine on what you think 'my issues' are?

trigger for his problems this time, and account for his nighttime driving while acting "out of it." A guy like Kennedy shouldn't be prescribed Ambien no matter how safe it may be for average people.

with alcoholism
I'm glad he's going to get help

I just posted that query to the first thread on this subject. I saw a news report that said people sleep drove, sleep cooked, sleep ate on this drug. What a dangerous drug! But cannabis is illegal!

No drug is perfect; the risk/benefit analysis varies from one person to the next. I think doctors should be considerably more involved with monitoring and educating their patients about correct usage, and not prescribe to those unlikely to comply. Of course, our health system provides no incentives for this.

A long-time substance abuser like Kennedy shouldn't have prescriptions for Ambien, but prescriptions are not hard to get if you or your enablers are powerful.

I agree with you, btw, how ludicrous it is that marijuana is illegal. I don't use it myself but wish that a lot more people did instead of drink, as long as they're going to be using recreational substances.

My opinions, nothing more, nothing less.

Peace.

these behaviors are sometimes things that endanger many others. Sleepdriving sends a shiver down my spine, for example, not because I take the drug, but because other people take it.

I know people drink and drive, but this is not the same at all. My understanding is, these effects can be seen under nominal use, not through overuse/addiction.

This is potentially a problem for everyone and the drug needs to be pulled.

It works well for some people, but I've seen near psychotic behavior in some of my patients. I avoid giving it at all costs, unless there is a track record that it works for someone. I hate to be the "first dose giver" There are alternatives. Ambien can be particularly nasty.

I had grotesque dreams, sleepwalking, etc. and was only able to sleep for a few hours at a time. It did not help with my inability to sleep.

It is in my medical record that Ambien "cases hallucinations" in my case.

I agree with you, it is a very freaky and scary drug and it tends to be the first drug prescribed for sleep difficulties.

:kick:

I had about two years of bad experiences on Ambien. Until these recent reports, I suspected Ambien to be the cause but my doctor didn't necessarily make the connection at the time.

I would wake up and defend myself from impending doom almost nightly. I have stopped taking Ambien for about a year now - my dreams and life are much more restful without it.

Here's some of my 'better' hallucinations:
Ants wielding spears, chucking them at me.
Alien laser beams charring my bed when quickly approaching me
Creating a luggage fort in a hotel room much to my traveling companion's disbelief
having the bravado to defend myself against the swinging blade of a ceiling fan (i woke up pretty quickly after this one!)

I woke up outside my apartment only once. Once was enough.

i've tried the herbal remedies, meditation, sudafed, etc. nothing works for me.

Those are two completely different things, but both result in lousy sleep.

When I finally went to see a sleep disorder specialist, he took my history and asked a lot of questions. I spent a night at the clinic hooked up to a brazillion wires. Halfway through, the technician woke me up and slipped the headgear for a CPAP (Continous Positive Air Pressure) device on me, commenting that I seriously needed it. The report I received in the mail indicated that in the space of just two and a half hours I had stopped breathing about a hundred times.

Both my husband and I are sleeping much better now. I think I was scaring him. Oh, and Blue Cross covers the equipment.

Fibromyalgia or other chronic pain can cause poor sleep, which in turn increases the pain. Getting it diagnosed and treated can help.

If you are not taking calcium supplements, now would be a good time to start. That can help with muscle relaxation.

Don't consume caffeine from any source after noon.

That's about all I can think of, except to urge you to continue meditation and herbal teas like Sleepy Time, as they are all healthy anyway.

Good luck. oops, look at the time

Hekate

It works wonders for me.

So Ambien isnt the only player here...

ask yourself sometime how much money they've made pushing ambien on TV.

Probably the best sleep aid ever...

:smoke:

She told me that she would actually be asleep, but get up and do things around the house. She was quite embarassed when she discovered she was watering her plants in her underwear on the deck of her apartment in full view of the adjacent building.

Sounds like it might be screwing with that brain process that paralyzes you during sleep so you don't actually act out what you're doing in your dream.

It was one where they had set up security cameras in people's houses (because they had been getting very sick and didn't know why); what they discovered and then filmed was these people doing extremely bizarre things, like getting up in the middle of the night and dipping cigarette butts in peanut butter and eating them, real nasty stuff like that...

ANYway...

I wonder if any of them were on this drug at the time. Hmm.

restless yet sleepy. Tossing and turning all freaking night.

That stuff needs to be a lot more closely regulated.

The first few news cycles, it sounded like he was drunk (a family failing through both parents) or having a blackout (really bad sign with alcohol or drugs) ... and personally I think the way the cops handled him had much more to do with his being a congressman than being a Kennedy, but who knows.

Today, though, Ambien was mentioned... and its side effects are well-known by now.

Hekate

drinking even though he was staggering and confused. In a way, it's really too bad they didn't do a Breathalyzer test because that would have cleared him!

Because he isn't even sure he took it now.

******************************************************

Mystery woman tried to stop him, report says

Saturday, May 6, 2006 - Updated: 02:13 AM EST

U.S. Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy was with a woman at his Capitol Hill home Wednesday night before he smashed his Mustang convertible into a barricade near a House office building, according to a published report.

“She tried to dissuade me” from leaving the house, he told The Providence Journal. “And she wishes she had done a better job dissuading me.”

The unmarried lawmaker declined to give the woman’s name and says he only knows she tried to stop him because she has since told him so.

Kennedy, 38, spoke to the paper before heading to Minnesota for addiction treatment at the prestigious Mayo Clinic.

In his latest account of what happened early Thursday, the son of U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy said he took the stomach medication Phenergan earlier in the night during a House session. But he said he does not recall taking the sleep aid Ambien - even though he assumes he must have.

Kennedy has said since Thursday night that a cocktail of the prescriptions put him into a stupor he can’t recall.

It was “scary,” he said.

Capitol police officers stopped Kennedy after he hit the barricade and drove him home without administering field sobriety tests.

The next step for Kennedy, he said, is, “I’ve got to do total abstinence, period. From now on, obviously, I’m a very public face with addiction and alcoholism written on my head.”

http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=138138&format=text

customer comments

I think you can find them worth reading.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=1118549&mesg_id=1118549

When I took the dosage originally prescribed is when I had trouble (going to bed, falling asleep, then getting up and acting out weird scenarios, and having zero memory of it afterward -- relying entirely on witnesses and obvious evidence to know what I had done). My dosage was reduced and I never had the trouble again. It took a while to track down what the cause was of my nocturnal "other life." I got hurt only once; otherwise the things I did were so far over the top, they were funny.

I know others who've had such things happen to them when on Ambien, too. One went driving. He was lucky that the police recognized that he wasn't drunk; that he had a problem caused by something else. They got him medical help.

My adverse reaction(s) happened several years ago. I take a low dose every night, and have for many years. I've never been addicted (needing ever-increasing strength for it to work). I could stop it without "withdrawal" but I wouldn't sleep. I've tried from time to time not taking it, and I do as I did before getting the Rx in the beginning: lie awake. That's debilitating to my health. But I do pay a price. I am certain that Ambien affects my memory. I mean everyday kind of memory, not the amnesia that comes when taking the higher dose. But given the alternative, it's a trade off I'm willing to make. Sleepless nights are very hard on a person.

When Kennedy said he has had a chronic condition/illness for years, I think he was talking about his bipolar disorder, which is often accompanied by addiction -- whether it be to drugs or alchohol, or gambling or spending money. It's also often found in people who have alcoholism in their bloodline. Of course, plenty of bipolars have no addiction problems. However, I've yet to meet one who didn't have problems falling asleep when in the "up" side of the condition. When "down" sleep comes easily for them.

Don't people get so tired during the day that they just go to sleep at night?

What's happened that so many people are taking this crap?

This is a bad, bad development, I think.

What is wrong with us?

Ditto for my parents but not my sisters. I think some people are just built that way.