Posted by med_empowered on May 18, 2005, at 1:07:09
In reply to Re: Lunesta addictive? » SadDoggie, posted by Jakeman on May 18, 2005, at 0:01:20
Hey! Lunesta and that other new sleeping pill...Sepracor (?)...are in the FDA's Schedule IV of controlled substances. This class by definition means there is a minimal risk of addiction and what not compared to therapeutic benefits, but there is still a potential for problems (mostly withdrawal problems, not really addiction per se), so docs still have to follow the 5 refills in 6months rule, blah blah blah. Anyway, my shrink has me taking Atarax all the time for sleep, with Ambien as needed; we talked about it, and he opted to go with something well-established but still very, very safe. My problem with the new pills, which I expressed to him, is that they're being marketed so heavily with no really good post-marketing data available yet. I know, this sounds overcautious, but look at your psychiatric history here---Quaaludes, those notorious downers of the '70s, were put into Schedule V (no restrictions, but RX required) by the FDA in 1965 because there didn't seem to be any indication they caused problems. Well, the FDA screwed up, to put it lightly. By the early 70s, Quaaludes were crazy popular and kids were buying them for 3 bucks a pop at their middle schools and high schools. As per usual, docs and the FDA took a while to a) recognize the problem b)realize their mistakes and c) address the issue. It wasn't until 1980 that Quaaludes were put into Schedule II (no refills) and it wasn't until 1984 that Quaaludes were removed entirely from the market in the US.
poster:med_empowered
thread:499238
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050516/msgs/499321.html