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medpundit |
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Tuesday, January 13, 2004A new effort appears to be developing to expand the use of sleeping pills, which because of their potential for abuse have long had a reputation as being in some ways more dangerous than the insomnia they are meant to treat. Some sleep experts say newer pills are safer than the ones that once caused deaths from overdose. Moreover, some say, there is growing evidence that insomnia is a serious medical condition, not just a nuisance. 'Slowly, we are beginning to identify that insomnia does have some risks associated with it, and when that happens there will be more press to treat it aggressively,' said Dr. Michael H. Bonnet, director of the sleep laboratory at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Dayton, Ohio. No doubt about it. Lack of sleep can impair function. It dulls the reflexes, causes a mental fog, and induces emotional fragility. But this is a bit worrisome: But part of the new push is driven by drug company marketing. Two new sleeping pills are expected to be available by the end of next year and their manufacturers hope to have them approved for broader and longer-term use than recommended for previous pills. And the companies are expected to advertise their products, and the problem of insomnia, heavily." The problem with advertising insomnia (and other medical conditions) heavily is that it begets the "medical student syndrome." It's a well known fact that medical students begin to suspect they have every malady they learn about when they recognize the symptoms described in the textbook in themselves. The same thing happens with endless exposure to disease symptoms in magazines and television. People who are little shy are convinced they have a social phobia. Others who are sad, or not happy all the time, become convinced they have depression. And the same thing will happen with insomnia. There will be those who sleep less than eight hours a day, or who occasionally have a sleepless night who will become convinced they have insomnia and that they must have the latest pill, at all costs. Since occasional sleeplessness is as common as occasional unhappiness, expect these new drugs to take off with the same vigor as SSRI's have. And, since changing sleep patterns are a part of growing older, expect those new Medicare drug beneficiaries to be responsible for a large share of the demand. As one drug company advertising executive put it, "Once you tell people there's a cure for something, the more likely they are to pressure doctors to prescribe it.'' American medicine and pharmaceuticals - doing our best to spend our children's future now. And without losing sleep over it. posted by Sydney on 1/13/2004 08:06:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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