![]() This causes problems for people who have insomnia because of chronic health problems as they may need ongoing treatment with medications. In Australia, the only medication for insomnia approved for use for more than 3 months is suvorexant. That is usually in around 6 weeks to 3 months, but can be longer, particularly if people have either very severe insomnia, other health problems, or a tendency to anxiety which can make insomnia symptoms take longer to settle. I’ll aim to reduce the medication once people’s symptoms begin to settle as they get more confidence in managing their sleep. So, my usual practice is to focus on non-drug treatments for insomnia, but if someone is having a lot of trouble and not managing well through the day, to also start a medication. But, research in the last few years suggests that if people are very distressed about their sleep, using medication whilst in parallel working on non-drug treatments gives the best results. (For an explanation of acute vs chronic insomnia see this post.) In chronic (more than 3 months) insomnia there is not high quality research to guide when to use medication in the treatment of long-term or chronic insomnia. Short-term use of medications is common in acute (short-term) insomnia. These results are very different from what is sometimes expected from medications, and highlights that if people rely on medications alone they may be disappointed. Give people 15-30 minutes more sleep per night.Shorten the time to get to sleep by 15-30 minutes.Research on most common medications used shows that they: For example, some do work quickly, but only last 3-4 hours, whereas others can take longer to work, but last for 5-6 hours. So in choosing a medication it’s important to determine what is important to the individual as different medications have different profiles. However, no medications meet all or even most of these criteria. Have no potential for addiction or becoming dependent.Allow people to wake up feeling refreshed with no carry-over effects.Unfortunately none of the medications that are available for sleep are perfect, so it’s important to understand the limitations of medications and not expect too much. What should I expect from a medication for insomnia? This in turn puts them in a better position to work on non-drug treatments. So medications are often used to ‘buy time’ to work on other treatments and give people some success with better sleep and allows them to feel better. One of the problems though is that there is no perfect medication, and often the effects of medication wear off after a while. What’s the role of medication for insomnia?Īlthough the best long term treatments for insomnia are non-drug strategies to change thinking and behaviour around sleep, there is a role for medication.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |