Mr. Media Will You Please Follow Up?

"So do you use sleeping tablets to organize yourself?" Al-Rashed asked.

bq. "Yes. Well, I wouldn't call them that," (Colin) mPowell said. "They're a wonderful medication -- not medication. How would you call it? They're called Ambien, which is very good. You don't use Ambien? Everybody here uses Ambien."

So that's from the Washington Post almost 2 weeks ago. Am I the only one who wants to know more?

Well here is a bit more about that med:

Side effects include:

Common: abnormal dreaming, abnormal vision, amnesia, daytime drowsiness, depression, dizziness, double vision, drugged feelings, euphoria, fatigue, insomnia, lethargy, light headdress, vertigo, headache or confusion.

Rare: abnormal thinking, aggression, delusions, dementia, feeling of unreality, feeling strange, hysteria, illusions, intoxicated feelings, manic reactions, neurosis, panic attacks, personality disorder, speech impairment.

More from the warnings:

A variety of abnormal thinking and behavior changes have been reported to occur in association with the use of sedative/ hypnotics. Some of these changes may be characterized by decreased inhibition (eg, aggressiveness and extroversion that seemed out of character), similar to effects produced by alcohol and other CNS depressants. Other reported behavioral changes have included bizarre behavior, agitation, hallucinations, and depersonalization.

And a little bit from the products own site:

AMBIEN is classified as a Schedule IV substance by government regulation. Potential for abuse and addiction is a primary consideration of a drug’s classification. Please ask your doctor or pharmacist if you have questions about this.

Addiction, or dependence, can be caused by sleep medicines, especially when they are used regularly for longer than a few weeks or at high doses. All people taking sleep medicines have some risk of becoming dependent on the medicine. However, people who have been dependent on alcohol or other drugs in the past may have a greater chance of becoming addicted to sleep medicines and should be under their doctor’s careful observation when receiving AMBIEN or any other sleep medicine.

Yow, this is our government my friends. You'd think a few more questions would be asked...

Posted by William Blaze at November 22, 2003 02:27 PM | TrackBack