The sleeping pill Ambien is in the spotlight after being in TV star Roseanne Barr鈥檚 racial attack on Barack Obama鈥檚 former adviser Valerie Jarrett.
In a since-deleted Twitter post, the actor blamed the slur on late-night 鈥淎mbien tweeting鈥�. She also claimed that she had previously done 鈥渨eird stuff鈥� under the influence of the drug, like cracking eggs on a wall.
In response, the drug鈥檚 manufacturer Sanofi : 鈥淲hile all pharmaceutical treatments have side effects, racism is not a known side effect of any Sanofi medication.鈥�
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The sleeping pill 鈥� which goes by the generic name zolpidem 鈥� has a long history of public controversy. In 2006, US congressman Patrick Kennedy blamed the medication for crashing his car. In 2011, actor Charlie Sheen said he had taken the pill on the night he trashed a hotel room the year before. In 2014, Australian Olympic swimmer Grant Hackett was found half-naked and incoherent in a hotel foyer after reportedly taking the drug.
Since being approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in 1992, zolpidem has become one of the most popular sleeping pills on the market. In the US alone, more than 30 million prescriptions are dispensed each year.
Strange side effects
Most users don鈥檛 experience problematic side effects, but the drug is known to trigger bizarre behaviours in a small minority. Between 2003 and 2012, the FDA documented more than of abnormal sleep behaviour and almost 900 cases of hallucinations in people using the medication.
The warns that people using the drug may get out of bed without waking and perform a range of activities, including driving a car, eating food and having sex, without remembering the next morning.
In 2009, for example, neurologists reported the case of a 44-year-old US woman who sent to a friend after taking zolpidem. One read: 鈥渋 don鈥檛 get it. please explain LUCY!! cOME TOMORROW AND SORT THIS HELL HOLE Out!!!!! dinner & drinks, 4;00 pm shars house. Wine and caviar to bring only. everything else, a guess? MANANA XXOO鈥�. The woman had no memory of writing the emails the next day.
In another example, a passenger on a flight in the US began speaking strangely and trying to after taking zolpidem to help him sleep on the plane.
Other cases describe people unknowingly driving, eating, painting their front doors, or even themselves or others while sleepwalking on zolpidem. However, there have been no reports of the drug causing racist behaviour.
Reduce the risk
To try to reduce zolpidem鈥檚 risks, the FDA in 2013. This was based on the finding that women clear the drug more slowly and are more at risk of car accidents the next day. However, a follow-up study found that two-thirds of women under the age of 65 were , suggesting the message wasn鈥檛 getting through.
Australia鈥檚 drug regulator 鈥� the Therapeutic Goods Administration 鈥� has tackled the problem in a different way. In 2008, it added large, bold warning labels to zolpidem leaflets declaring the risk of sleepwalking and bizarre behaviours. The pack size was also reduced, and a label added to the front to advise against mixing with alcohol. Afterwards, reports of abnormal sleep behaviours dropped from about 120 to 14 per year, and hallucinations from 140 to 3 per year.
