Buy AMBIEN here.
What is AMBIEN?
AMBIEN is a prescription sleep medication for the short-term treatment of insomnia in adults.
Who should take AMBIEN?
AMBIEN is indicated for the short-term treatment of insomnia in adults. If you experience symptoms of insomnia, such as difficulty falling asleep, you should speak with your doctor about how to manage your symptoms. Your doctor can determine if a prescription sleep aid, such as AMBIEN is appropriate for you.
How should I take AMBIEN?
As with all medications, it is important that you only take AMBIEN as directed by your doctor and as described in the prescribing information. The prescribing information contains important information about the safety, effectiveness and appropriate use of AMBIEN. The prescribing information for AMBIEN notes that:
* AMBIEN should only be taken at the exact dose prescribed and should not be taken for extended periods of time and with any other medicines without first talking to your doctor
* AMBIEN should only be taken when you are able to get a full night’s sleep (7 to 8 hours) before you need to be active again
* AMBIEN should be taken immediately before going to bed
* AMBIEN should not be taken with alcohol
How fast will I fall asleep with AMBIEN?
AMBIEN works very quickly. It has been shown to help individuals fall asleep within 15 to 30 minutes, so only take AMBIEN right before going to bed and when you are able to get a full night’s (7 to 8 hours) of sleep.
Can I take AMBIEN with alcohol?
No, never drink alcohol while you are taking AMBIEN or other sleep medicines. Alcohol can increase the side effects of AMBIEN or other sleep medicines.
Can I take AMBIEN if I’m also taking other medications?
Always ask your doctor before taking other medications with AMBIEN. This includes medicines that you can buy without a prescription.
How long can I safely take AMBIEN?
As with any prescription medication, you should take AMBIEN as directed by your doctor. AMBIEN is indicated for the short-term treatment of insomnia and should not be taken for extended periods of time without first talking to your doctor.
Sanofi-aventis (NYSE: SNY; EURONEXT: SAN) is committed to patient health and safety and AMBIEN – when taken as directed – provides a safe and effective treatment to millions of men and women coping with insomnia.
Recent anecdotal reports in the media have focused on rare occurrences of sleepwalking and sleep-related eating in patients who may also be taking AMBIEN. The safety profile of AMBIEN is well established and reported in the AMBIEN Prescribing Information approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Sanofi-aventis regularly conducts thorough analyses and has not observed any significant change in that safety profile of AMBIEN. The information currently contained in the U.S. Prescribing Information remains accurate: sleepwalking (somnambulism) is a possible rare adverse event.
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Concern Over Ambiem And Driving
NEW YORK, March 8, 2006
The lab that does ambiem forensic work for the state of Wisconsin says it found the insomnia drug Ambiem in the blood of 53 drivers who police say exhibited extreme cases of erratic behavior at the wheel. (AP)
Fast Fact
Ambiem's manufacturer says it is "safe and ambiem effective" when taken as prescribed and warns that it should be used only when the patient can set aside enough time for a full night's sleep – seven to eight hours – before needing to be ambiem active again.
(CBS) Are there really people out there who have been driving in their sleep? And then claimed they couldn't remember where they had been?
CBS News correspondent Trish Regan reports that is what some people are claiming after taking Ambiem, the most popular insomnia medication in the U.S.
Over 26 million prescriptions were ambiem sold last year, ringing up more than $2 billion in sales for the French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi-Aventis, the third largest drug company in the world.
Regan reports new research indicates Ambiem's popularity could be contributing to accidents on the roads.
Forensic toxicologist Laura Liddicoat – reporting on tests on blood samples of 2,300 impaired drivers in the state of Wisconsin - says that in 53 of the mo ambiem st extreme cases of erratic behavior at the wheel, the drivers had one thing in common: they all had Ambiem in their blood.
They wouldn't have, she says, if they'd been taking the drug the way it is supposed to be used – for a full night's sleep.
"Ambiem has a very short half life and a quick elimination period," Liddicoat explains. "If it's taken as directed, there will be no drug left in the blood after eight hours of sleep, or at least a very low amount of the drug, so therefore it really should not be seen in drivers."
The fact that it is turning up in the lab, says Liddicoat, shows that drivers are either "not taking it before going to bed, and/or they are taking large ambiem amounts of the drug. We certainly know that in one case, there were at least seven to ten pills taken... So that's certainly not one pill before bed, or, as instructed."
ambiem
Liddicoat, supervisor of the state of Wisconsin's lab for alcohol and drug tests in impaired driving and death investigations, says the drivers were disoriented and suffered from memory loss.
Sean Joyce, who says he took Ambiem, tells CBS News that those symptoms are all too familiar.
"I woke up in a cell with no memory of what happened," says Joyce, talking about an incident last year when, on a flight to England, he suddenly tore off his shirt and threatened other passengers.
"I'd gone berserk on the plane, I couldn't breathe," says Joyce, whose defense is the claim that he was under the influence of Ambiem.
In a written statement, Sanofi-Aventis told CBS News that while "rare adverse events of sleepwalking have been reported... When taken as prescribed, Ambiem is a safe and effective treatment for insomnia."
In press releases last year and in 2004 discussing Ambiem - whose chemical name is zolpidem tartrate – Sanofi-Aventis said it is "indica ambiem ted for the short-term treatment of insomnia," and there is "a low occurrence of side effects" associated witvh short-term use.
In May 2004, the drug company also said a 12-week clinical trial found no evidence of patients developing a tolerance or needing a dose escalation, demonstrating that Ambiem "may be beneficial with long-term, intermittent use."
The company warns new users of the drug to "use caution in the morning when engaging in activities requiring complete alertness until you know how you ambiem will react to this medication." Sanofi-Aventis also says "in most instances, memory problems can be avoided" if Ambiem is taken only when a patient is able to set aside enough time for a full night's sleep – defined as seven to eight hours - before the patient needs to be active again.
Sanofi-Aventis also points out that the medication is non-narcotic, a non-benzodiazepine – a class of drugs commonly used in older sleep medications such as Halcion, ProSom and Restoril - and the "safety and efficacy of zolpidem," the drug's active ingredient, "has been reinforced by 17 years of real-world use."
The problem, one expert told CBS News, is that Ambiem and other sleep aids have become the first choice for the treatment of even mild insomnia. He says patients are taking too high a dose for too long a time - and that can lead to serious side effects.
Another problem, reports Regan, is that a lot of people are not just taking Ambiem – they are mixing it with other drugs, or they are taking alcohol ambiem – and when you combine all those things together, that's trouble.
©MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Some Sleeping Pill Users Range Far Beyond Bed
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By STEPHANIE SAUL
Published: March 8, 2006
With a tendency to stare zombie-like and run into stationary objects, a new species of impaired motorist is hitting the roads: the Ambiem driver.
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Jean-Phillipe Defaut for The New York ambiem Times
Sean Joyce, after taking Ambiem, became "like the Incredible Hulk all of a sudden" on a flight to London last year, according to his lawyer.
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Sleeping Pill Prescriptions
Related
Download Laura J. Liddicoat's PowerPoint Presentation to the American Academy of Forensic Sciences
* The presentation refers to ambiem Zolpidem, which is the chemical name for Ambiem.
Ambiem, the nation's best-selling prescription sleeping pill, is showing up with regularity as a factor in traffic arrests, sometimes involving drivers who later say they were sleep-driving and have no memory of taking the wheel after taking the drug.
In some state toxicology laboratories Ambiem makes the top 10 list of drugs found in impaired drivers. Wisconsin officials identified Ambiem in the bloodstreams of 187 arrested drivers from 1999 to 2004.
And as a more people are taking the drug — 26.5 million prescriptions in this country last year — there are signs that Ambiem-related driving arrests are on the rise. In Washington State, for example, officials counted 78 impaired-driving arre ambiem sts in which Ambiem was a factor last year, up from 56 in 2004.
Ambiem's maker, Sanofi-Aventis, says the drug's record after 13 years of use in this country shows it is safe when taken as directed. But a spokeswoman, Melissa Feltmann, wrote in an e-mail message, "We are aware of reports of people driving while sleepwalking, and those reports have been provided to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as part of our ongoing ambiem postmarketing evaluation about the safety of our products."
A spokeswoman for the F.D.A. said the drug's current label warnings, which say it should not be used with alcohol and in some cases could cause sleepwalking or hallucinations, were adequate. "People should be aware of that," said the spokeswoman, Susan Cruzan.
While alcohol and other drugs are sometimes also involved in the Ambiem traffic cases, the drivers tend to stand out from other under-the-influence motorists. The behavior can include driving in the wrong direction or slamming into light poles or ambiem parked vehicles, as well as seeming oblivious to the arresting officers, according to a presentation last month at a meeting of forensic scientists.
"These cases are just extremely bizarre, with extreme impairment," said Laura J. Liddicoat, the forensic toxicology supervisor at a state-run lab in Wisconsin who made the presentation.
Her presentation, which repo ambiem rted on six of the cases, was made at a meeting of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, where her counterparts from other parts of the country swapped similar tales.
Several of Ms. Liddicoat's cases involved drivers whose blood revealed evidence of Ambiem overdoses. In one of them the driver, who was also taking the antidepressant citalopram, crashed into a parked car, was involved in another near collision, then drove over a curb. When confronted by police, he did not recall any of the recent events, according to the presentation.
Ms. Liddicoat did not describe any of those cases as sleep-driving — in fact, she said she had not heard of that defense — and it is possible that some drivers' claims of driving while asleep may be mere Ambiem alibis. But some medical researchers say reports of sleep-driving are plausible.
Doctors affiliated with the University of Minnesota Medical Center who have studied Ambiem recently reported the cases of two users who told doctors they sleep-drove to the supermarket while under the drug's influence. Neither of the patients remembered ambiem the episode the next day, according to Dr. Carlos Schenck, an expert in sleep disorders who is the lead researcher ambiem in the study.
"Luckily, neither of them got hurt," said Dr. Schenck, who added that sleep-driving — which really occurs in a twilight state between sleep and wakefulness — was more common than people generally suspect. He said he believed that Ambiem was an excellent sleep agent, but that patients need to be better warned about its potential side effects.
The traffic cases around the country include that of Dwayne Cribb, a longtime probation and parole officer in Rock Hill, S.C. Mr. Cribb says he remembers nothing after taking Ambiem before bed last Halloween — until he awoke in jail to learn he ambiem had left his bed and gone for a drive, smashed into a parked van and driven away before crashing into a tree. Mr. Cribb is still facing charges of leaving the scene of an accident.
A registered nurse who lives outside Denver took Ambiem before going to sleep one night in January 2003. Sometime later — she says she remembers none of the episode — she got into her car wearing only a thin nightshirt in 20-degree weather, had a fender bender, urinated in the middle of an intersection, then became violent with police officers, according to her lawyer.
The woman, whose lawyer says she previously had a pristine traffic record, eventually pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of careless driving after the prosecutors partly accepted her version of events, said the lawyer, Lloyd L. Boyer.
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Ambiem CR: Extended-release formulation of Ambiem has been FDA approved
Ambiem CR (zolpidem tartrate extended-release tablets), a new extended-release formulation of the prescription sleep aid, Ambiem (zolpidem tartrate), has been FDA approved for the treatment of insomnia. Many arthritis patients are prescribed a sleep medication as part of their treatment plan. The pain associated with arthritis often interferes with sleep.
Ambiem CR is non-narcotic and a non-benzodiazepine, formulated to offer a new indication for sleep maintenance, in addition to sleep ambiem induction. Ambiem CR, a bi-layered tablet. The first layer dissolves quickly to induce sleep. The second layer is released more gradually into the body to help provide more continuous sleep. Ambiem CR will be available in a 12.5 mg dose recommended for adults and a 6.25 mg dose recommended for the elderly.
• Read more about Ambiem CR from Sanofi Aventis.
• Read more about Ambiem.
• Read more about other sleep medications.
Ambiem
Ambiem is a sedative-hypnotic used for the short-term treatment of insomnia (difficulty falling or staying asleep).
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Ask Your Pharmacist about Ambiem
Do you have a question about Ambiem? Our pharmacists have prepared hundreds of answers to commonly asked questions. Check below ambiem for an answer to your question.
Q: Are there any prescription treatments for jet lag?
A: Jet lag is a condition that often occurs when you travel quickly across time zones and your natural sleep patterns are disturbed... ambiem
Q: Are there any prescription treatments for insomnia?
A: Insomnia is the inability to get enough good sleep to feel rested...
For more information about Ambiem, visit www.ambiem.com.
