Posted on 03/07/2006 8:06:19 PM PST by neverdem
With a tendency to stare zombie-like and run into stationary objects, a new species of impaired motorist is hitting the roads: the Ambien driver.
Ambien, the nation's best-selling prescription sleeping pill, is showing up with regularity as a factor in traffic arrests, sometimes involving drivers who later say they were sleep-driving and have no memory of taking the wheel after taking the drug.
In some state toxicology laboratories Ambien makes the top 10 list of drugs found in impaired drivers. Wisconsin officials identified Ambien in the bloodstreams of 187 arrested drivers from 1999 to 2004.
And as a more people are taking the drug — 26.5 million prescriptions in this country last year — there are signs that Ambien-related driving arrests are on the rise. In Washington State, for example, officials counted 78 impaired-driving arrests in which Ambien was a factor last year, up from 56 in 2004.
Ambien's maker, Sanofi-Aventis, says the drug's record after 13 years of use in this country shows it is safe when taken as directed. But a spokeswoman, Melissa Feltmann, wrote in an e-mail message, "We are aware of reports of people driving while sleepwalking, and those reports have been provided to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as part of our ongoing postmarketing evaluation about the safety of our products."
A spokeswoman for the F.D.A. said the drug's current label warnings, which say it should not be used with alcohol and in some cases could cause sleepwalking or hallucinations, were adequate. "People should be aware of that," said the spokeswoman, Susan Cruzan.
While alcohol and other drugs are sometimes also involved in the Ambien traffic cases, the drivers tend to stand out from other under-the-influence motorists. The behavior can include driving in the wrong direction or slamming into light poles or parked vehicles...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
That's just screwed up.
Agreed on all counts. The fact that this country is losing (has lost) it's mind is making me lose mine.
Uh, except that people don't take Ambien to get high...and they need a prescription for it...and your straw man argument makes little (if any) sense.
By your 'logic' we should ban every drug that has any effect on your nervous sytem (or legalize every one--I certainly hope you're not advocating making meth and, say, crack legal, right?) since it's 'not fair' that your drug of choice isn't legal (I call this the "waaaahhh, it's not fair" argument.)
"Agreed on all counts."
Thank you for your affirmation!
I bought "Women's Day" in a fit of domestic godessness, and leafing through I realized I was at page 78 and it had all been diseases and medications. I just can't stand getting old with the baby boomers, though being young with them was fun, I will admit that.
Try Sonata. Very effective, and no reports of causing these bouts of somnolent insanity.
You are really missing my point. It just seems like the powers that be would like us all on the preferred "legal" drugs, while still waging the "war" on illegal drugs. A war that has really gotten to ridiculous levels. I'm too tired to try and find a link to the National Review article on the immigrant grocers, I think I read it on the website a while ago, and just re-read it in the print edition of 3/14 (which I just bought because it's got an article on my kid's college), but it would make any reasonable person's hair stand on end.
I don't want to legalize drugs, if I ruled the world I'd probably legalize marijuanna and that would be about it. But these legal drugs, such as ritalin, all these "anti-social-phobia" drugs etc. are just as mind altering, and probably just as "toxic" as many illegal drugs. But they are heavily advertised to the public. (Not to mention alcohol and tobacco, which is on the verge of being illegalized, certainly usage and don't deny it) Not to mention viagra and many others. They are being touted to the general public over the heads of prescribing physicians. Patient emprowerment may (or may not) be a wonderful thing, but any ad that includes such disclaimer language as: be sure you tell your doctor if you have severe liver disease, really gives me pause. I mean, if you had such a problem, wouldn't "your doctor" know that? If you have so many problems and therefore so many doctors that the right hand doesn't know what the left is doing, should you really be chosing your medication based on a TV commercial?
Drugs (legal or illegal) are powerful things. Most (if not all) can have good and bad effects. They are not to be treated like Mentos (trademark), and yet it seems it's OK to treat the legal ones that way. Until too many users have some adverse effect and then they'll be yanked, and screw the users who are being helped by them.
It's craziness. Mixed with Puritanism. Really, one thing America does better than anybody.
I've had Ambien over the years which my doctor would only give me 7 pills at a time. I would sleep a total of 4 hrs. I have a real problem sleeping and have for many years. The directions tell you not to drive etc, not to take unless you have a full 8 hrs to devote to sleep, not to drive until you know the side affects. I think Ambien is not very good and I've tried Lunesta which is way worse. I woke up with the most horrible taste in my mouth that lasted hours. Now my quack of a doctor seems to push paxil and zoloft at me each time I go there. I am not depressed and I refuse them each time. I don't bother with sleeping aides anymore, instead I just read or get online until I am sleepy. People who use these drugs need to follow the directions . The scarey thing is that I know many people who drive on Valium and Zanex. All these drugs are not to be used when driving. People need to use medications wisely or the law ought to come down hard on them.
Nailed it!
The first adverse effect about Ambien that I was taught while training was its propensity for nightmares. Sleep-walking and sleep-driving without any other drugs or alcohol doesn't surprise me. It's classification as a sedative/hypnotic seems appropriate.
Yeah you've got to watch it with Ambien. I was given a prescription for Ambien a while back and its a very strange drug. As opposed to drugs that just make you very sleepy like Valium, Ambien is a hypnotic drug. Meaning it doesn't just make you sleepy it puts your brain in a different state of mind. My experience is that it takes a while for drugs to take effect on my body so, I decided to take the Ambien tablet early. At exactly 10:30pm I took the pill so I could watch 15 minutes of the news then go to bed. Well I started to feel kind of funny by the start of the news and the next thing I clearly remember is waking up in bed the next morning. When I went downstairs, the TV was still on, a sandwich was made and half eaten, and several board games were spread out on the floor. I had done all these things and not even rememered having done them. I'm glad that I put my keys in a drawer at night, so I couldn't have gotten to them to drive my car. From then on I take the tablets when I'm already in bed reading and ready to go to bed. Be carefull with Ambien take it only when your in bed ready for sleep, don't take it while your sitting up you'll do weird things!! You can google stories of Ambien forgetfullness and hear some weird stories.
Frankly, I find the notion of going to bed and waking up behind the wheel of my car slammed into a telephone pole terrifying. But I don't take stupid drugs like Ambien for just this reason. If I can't sleep, I catch the Late Late Late show on TV.
Last night they showed Gabriel Bryne and Bridget Fonda in The Point of No Return, a truly craptacular movie, except it has one of the greatest action sequences of all time, where Fonda assassinates a VIP in a restaurant and eventually escapes through the kitchen laundry chute.
The fedgov.con and the drug warriors managed to eradicate qualudes. They seem to have a problem with everything else.
Wow. I think that would be the last time I took that particular drug. Scary.
Now nortryptliline (sic?) gave me nightmares not to be believed...
L
"Drugs are bad, mmmkay?"
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
Ambien + SUV's = terrorism?
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