Ambien and comas - explaination of pharmacology..?

[WVUPharm2007]

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Ok, so there have been several case reports of folks in persistent vegetative states being snapped out of their coma by single doses of Ambien. One study showed that maintenance has worked for 6 years and going.

Now, the theory behind it all is that the drug causes the already supersensitized GABA to change conformation, then allow less GABA innervation...which I guess makes them snap out of it. Now, unless I'm crazy I understood that Ambien binds to the same recepter BZNs bind to on the 1alpha-GABA-A receptor, which potentiates GABA action.

So how the hell does that work? Something that typically potentiates GABA slows it down in those patients? WTF? The only thing I can figure is that it kinda works in a similar way beta blockers do in CHF. You'd think they wouldn't help..in fact, you'd think they'd hurt...but they wind up shutting off that compensatory mechanism dealing with beta receptor sensitivity and a couple of other things. Hell, I dunno.

Any ideas, folks?

 

[no-see-um]

It's not known...
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=471488

There's a lot to be learned about Ambien. It's not quite a benzodiazepine in structure, but it could be thought of as a selective benzodiazepine. It really straddles the levels of sleep (we see this in its on specific side effects of sleepwalking and anterograde amnesia), of consciousness, and all sorts of CNS activity.

 

[WVUPharm2007]

It's not known...
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=471488

There's a lot to be learned about Ambien. It's not quite a benzodiazepine in structure, but it could be thought of as a selective benzodiazepine. It really straddles the levels of sleep (we see this in its on specific side effects of sleepwalking and anterograde amnesia), of consciousness, and all sorts of CNS activity.

WTF, how did I miss that thread....I'll figure it out, anyway. I've noticed that several times "unknown" just means they can't prove it, but they already got an idea of what's up....

 

[humira49]

sleep - the function of it, the state of it, the maintenance & induction of it are all very interesting topics.

Likewise, the lack of sleep is such a social problem now.