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You’re listening to simple health radio the podcast about recognizing medical emergencies and promoting wellness your host is dr. imran an experienced er physician who has treated thousands of people just like you information on the show is not a substitute for professional medical advice always talk to your doctor or go to the nearest emergency room with any
Questions you may have you’re listening to question of the day on simple health radio with dr. imran today’s question comes to us from a follower who identified a new warning that came out from the fda i researched it a little bit and i have been able to provide some new information that may be relevant to a large number of my listeners the fda is the food and drug
Administration it is responsible for identifying medication safety and also to assign warnings when there are complications or side effects that were unexpected in this case the fda took the step of assigning a black box warning to a large category of medications that are used for insomnia so the medications that were reviewed included medications like ambien lunesta
And sonata so these are prescription medications used to help people sleep especially if they have insomnia that’s not responding to over-the-counter medications the fda assigned the black box warning because of a disorder called complex sleep behaviors this is a newer term but essentially it means that people who were taking lunesta ambien or any of the medications
In that category had side effects that caused a serious safety issue for example some people took the medication and drove to work other people committed suicide other people didn’t even remember taking the medication and they acted very bizarrely the reports that were submitted were voluntary the ones that the fda assigned for review were only about 66 and this
Is based on 26 years of data what that led many researchers to believe is that there are hundreds or even thousands of other cases similar to these and that’s why the fda came out and issued a black box warning now your doctor can still prescribe these medications but most likely that will have a very detailed conversation with you about the safety the risks and
The benefits of continuing this medication in the future now it is true that the manufacturers of all of these medications say it’s meant for short-term intermittent use meaning you’re not supposed to be on these medications every single day for months or years unfortunately there may be some additional reviews in the future depending upon what the outcomes are so
If you do have issues with sleep and insomnia i highly recommend you talk with your pharmacist talk with your doctor consider getting a sleep study and then think about getting alternative medications if your doctor is no longer willing to prescribe these for you in the future so again it’s a black box warning from the fda for all sleep aids particularly based on
Ambien lunesta and sonata don’t stop your medication immediately you need to talk to your doctor talk to your pharmacist get an assessment and then hopefully there will be some safety things they can discuss with you to prevent any complications you can read the show notes on today’s episode on simple health radio.com if you come across a news article or you have a
Question for me please connect with us via social media and i look forward to having you back on a future episode we hope you enjoyed this week’s episode visit simple health radio calm to read the blog follow links mentioned on this episode and easily share content with your family and friends subscribe to the show on itunes spotify youtube spreaker i heart radio
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Transcribed from video
Ep 107 Why does Ambien have a black box warning? By Simple Health Radio
