The safety of Zolpidem

[4thLiu]

Hi all,

Many of you may have heard about the death of actor Heath Ledger. Now at this point I'm not saying that his death has anything to do with drugs abuse or overdose, since the results of his autopsy haven't been revealed. However, there are reports that recently he has been taking Zolpidem (marketed in the US as Ambien, and in Australia as Stilnox) for the treatment of insomnia.

I thought this was interesting, and got me thinking, since Zolpidem was in one of the case studies in our pharmacology class last year. We were discussing about whether or not this drug should be pulled out of the market, considering the serious side effects reported by the patients.

Apparently, a lot of patients on Stilnox have reported sleep-walking, worse insomnia, suicidal tendency, and other bizarre behaviour, prompting the ADRAC to review the safety of Zolpidem, and in the mean time re-educate health professionals about prescribing it. The link to the article can be found here: http://www.tga.gov.au/alerts/stilnox.htm

Let's start a discussion on this, what do you all think?

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[Phlame217]

If a drug like accutane can still be on the market, despite how controlled it is now, I doubt ambien, which pales in comparison, will cause such a panic.

Pertaining to Ledger, there are preliminary reports of a high level of intoxication and a few opiates in his system which can point to OD. I doubt ambien was the sole cause of his demise.