Posted by don_bristol on July 26, 2004, at 8:04:28
In reply to Re: Hallucinations on zolpidem, zopiclone, zaleplon » jlbl2l, posted by chemist on July 25, 2004, at 17:40:34
> > VERY common on all these sleeping meds. Also severe MEMORY loss can occur. They are addicting as well and tolerance is gained.
> > Be very careful on these... Don't drive!
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> hello there, chemist here....i quickie on pubmed with keywords ``hallucination and zolpidem'' yielded 13 hits, many with no abstracts available. one indicates a 54 year-old male was stopped for erratic driving and blood tests were positive for zolpidem, fluoxetine, and hydrocodone (no alcohol); the next reports a young woman who experienced hallucinations during stopping/restarting zolpidem use; the next (published in 1998, so the number of cases is low, i suspect) states that the Washington Poison Center received 5 reports of hallucinations associated with zolpidem in the previous 2 years and that all 5 individuals were concurrently taking an antidepressant; and another reports 2 cases who had psychotic reactions and suggests that in addition to other cases (number not specified), all were female and there was dose dependence. keywords ``hallucination and zopiclone'' yielded zero results; and ``hallucination and zaleplon'' yields one result (abstract not available) entitled ``Perceptual disturbances with zaleplon.'' while a quick jaunt through pubmed is hardly conclusive, i find it hard to believe that hallucinations associated with these medications are ``VERY common,'' as you state, given that collectively, there are 14 publications that might apply, and a few of them indicate that other drugs were on board. in the white paper for zaleplon, hallucinations were noted to occur in the 1% to 10% range of subjects in post-marketing reports; hallucinations are not listed at all under adverse effects for zolpidem, and i do not have the white paper for zopiclone, although given that my pubmed search yeilded zero hits, i am going to go out on a limb here and state that in my opinion, hallucinations associated with zopiclone are not reported. if you have references you can share with us indicating that visual and/or auditory hallucinations are ``VERY common'' for any/all of the 3 drugs listed above, please do provide, as there appears to be a dearth of support in the refereed literature and manufacturers' information.....all the best, chemist
------Hello Chemist, thank you for an exhaustive look through the literature.
One important point which I omitted and which you refer to is the fact that my girlfriend is also taking an antidepressant. In her case it is 25mg escitalopram.
Maybe there is an interaction occurring between the "z" sleeping medications ("imidazoles"?) and her SSRI?
She takes a normal therapeutic dose and she hallucinates although the hallucinations tend to be after something like 45 to 60 minutes. I personally tend to find that these meds make me sleep very quickly so when "jlbl2l" say these hallucinations happen in people who remain awake on these meds then I guess her experience concurs with that.
However I have heard very few references to this and your searches show the same so I can not be sure it is so very common. OTOH some side effects of some meds go unreported for a long time because no one thinks to ask about them. ISTR that Prozac was not thought to cause a noticeable number of sexual side effects until researchers started asking patients about it.
The strange thing is that my girlfriend doeshas not had this hallucinatory effect with any other meds but she can reliably get the hallucinations on these 'z'-sleepers.
poster:don_bristol
thread:370403
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040724/msgs/370628.html