Sleeping Pills and the long term

[Guest guest]

There are some ways that I see sleeping pills being harmful in the long

term ( " shortening lifespan " )

* Most sleeping pills are minor tranquilizers; similar drugs are used in

the treatment of anxiety disorders. You've really got three kinds of

pharmacotherapy for these disorders: benzodiazepenes (BZ), antihistamines

(ultimately thorazine, although benadryl works) and antidepressants

(AD; I'd put Buspar in this class, although Buspar isn't labeled as an

antidepressant.) The other approach is cognitive-behaviorial therapy (CBT.)

Studies have been done on combined therapy: BZ + CBT and antidepressant +

CBT. It seems that BZ drugs suppress the effectiveness of CBT, whereas

CBT and AD work well together. Similarly, I've seen studies where people

given Buspar were largely free of psych meds at +48 months, and the BZ

takers were still popping pills.

We know that BZ drugs impair memory and learning, so it could be that BZ

therapy harms the ability to learn from CBT. It's also possible that CBT

requires a certain kind of mental vigilance (ability to change a

pathological thought process;) from a cognitive viewpoint, anxiety is a

cognitive process where the brain detects things in the environment that

" aren't right " , triggering a process of behavioral inhibition... Perhaps

CBT involves reprogramming the anxiety method to detect and correct itself.

Now, sleeping pills are mostly worn off by the time you wake up, but your

brain may be consolidating memories during sleep. Certainly many people

notice a hangover effect of SP's (I notice this even with

Valerian/Passionflower, which has similar chemistry), so it's likely your

first few hours in the morning are affected.

* On that note, sleeping pills harm coordination; you're talking about a

pretty heavy dose. The time I went downstairs to do a few chores, waiting

for the pills to hit, I was taking a risk... With impaired reflexes, I

could have fallen down or crashed into something. I'm young and in good

shape, but this could be the beginning of the end for an 80-yr old with

slower reflexes, less functional strength, and osteoporosis... Often old

people get a hip fracture and that's pretty much the end.

* I've heard anecdotal evidence about people who ran into a life crisis in

their 50's, starting taking BZ's, and went into a downward

spiral, ultimately ending in disability or early retirement. On the other

hand, I have a coworker in that age range who got started on 5 Klonopins a

day who eventually got weaned from them. (Awful pills.) In cases like

this you never really can separate out all the causes and effects.