Long-term use of sedative hypnotics in older patients with insomnia

Insomnia is a common problem that increases with age and can last months to years. While substantial data establish the efficacy and safety of short-acting hypnotic therapy for the management of short-term insomnia using benzodiazepines receptor agonists (BzRAs), there are few studies on the continu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sleep medicine 2005-03, Vol.6 (2), p.107-113
Main Authors: Ancoli-Israel, Sonia, Richardson, Gary S., Mangano, Richard M., Jenkins, Lisa, Hall, Phil, Jones, Walter S.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acetamides - administration & dosage
Acetamides - pharmacology
Acetamides - therapeutic use
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Aging
Double-Blind Method
Female
Humans
Hypnotics and Sedatives - administration & dosage
Hypnotics and Sedatives - pharmacology
Hypnotics and Sedatives - therapeutic use
Insomnia
Male
Middle Aged
Pyridines - administration & dosage
Pyridines - pharmacology
Pyridines - therapeutic use
Pyrimidines - administration & dosage
Pyrimidines - pharmacology
Pyrimidines - therapeutic use
Receptors, GABA-A - metabolism
Sedative hypnotic
Single-Blind Method
Sleep Initiation and Maintenance Disorders - drug therapy
Time
Wakefulness - drug effects
Withdrawal
Zaleplon
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Summary:Insomnia is a common problem that increases with age and can last months to years. While substantial data establish the efficacy and safety of short-acting hypnotic therapy for the management of short-term insomnia using benzodiazepines receptor agonists (BzRAs), there are few studies on the continued efficacy and safety of these drugs when used for sustained periods. This paper reports the results of a 1-year open-label extension phases of two randomized, double-blind trials of zaleplon. In the open-label phase, older patients self-administered zaleplon nightly from 6 to 12 months and were then followed through a 7-day single-blind placebo-controlled run-out period. The safety profile in this population of older adults was similar to that observed in a short-term trial of an equivalent population. The data also suggested that long-term therapy produced and maintained statistically significant improvement in time to persistent sleep onset, duration of sleep and number of nocturnal awakenings ( P
ISSN:1389-9457
1878-5506
DOI:10.1016/j.sleep.2004.10.015