FDA Warns Of Sleep Drug Side EffectsPOSTED: 3:54 pm EDT March 14,
2007 The following is a transcript of a report by medical editor Marilyn Brooks that first aired March 14, 2007, on WTAE Channel 4 Action News at 5 p.m. If you have a tough time getting to sleep or staying asleep, you might be among millions who take prescription sleeping pills.The Food and Drug Administration said those pills could cause bizarre and dangerous side effects.All prescription sleeping pills, including Ambien and Lunesta, could cause sleep driving, the FDA said. People get up in the middle of the night and go for a drive but don't remember it.Democratic Rep. Patrick Kennedy crashed his car into a security barrier at the U.S. Capitol last May after he took Ambien with an antinausea drug.The FDA reportedly has linked more than a dozen sleep-driving cases to sleep drugs. But no deaths have been recorded.People also make phone calls, fix and eat food and have sex while asleep.Life-threatening allergic reactions and severe facial swelling are also possible.The FDA has ordered strict new guidelines for Ambien, Butisol Sodium, Carbrital, Dalmane, Doral, Halcion, Lunesta, Placidyl, Prosom, Restoril, Rozerem, Seconal and Sonata.Drug makers must put warning labels on the pills about the effects, notify doctors of the new warnings by letter and dispatch prescription sleeping pills with medication guides that spell out the risks in easy-to-understand language.Millions of prescriptions are given out for sleep pills, so the side effects seem relatively rare. Related Links: More County NewsGet RSS | E-Mail Alerts Copyright 2007 by ThePittsburghChannel. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
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