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Is Ambien Useful to Persons W/ Parkinson’s Disease, Not Only for Sleep Difficulties, but Also Tremor Issues?

Question by : Is ambien useful to persons w/ parkinson’s disease, not only for sleep difficulties, but also tremor issues?
I vaguely remember hearing something about this on The NBC Nightly News, but it was a while back.

Best answer:

Answer by Mags
Most of the benzodiazepines are probably not the best choice for Parkinson’s patients. Fortunately, Ambien is a non-benzodiazepine although it works in the same way by enhancing th actions of the neurotransmitter GABA which in turn inhibits transmission of nerve signals. The non-benzodiazapine class to which Ambien (Zolipidem) belongs is a bit more specific in its inhibitory actions which is why it might be “safer.”

Some neuros do not prescribe it for their PD patients – some do. It has been known to cause morning grogginess, hallucinations and short term amnesia and may can cause dependence or addiction…because many people just pop it at night – every night.

In 2007 the FDA required a change of labeling for all sedative-hypnotics and Ambien, which appears to be fairly popular was included in the group.

Here is a good link to information about Ambien – read the sidebar info:
http://www.revolutionhealth.com/pages/all-about-ambien

You can read more at Patients Like Me where I only saw 1 person with PD using it currently.
http://www.patientslikeme.com/parkinsons/treatments/detail/1757-zolpidem

You might be very interested to read a physician’s response to your very question at the site below:
http://www.thebrainmatters.org/resources/neurologynow/?event=home.articlePDF&id=ovid.com:/bib/ovftdb/01222928-200703030-00027

About PD tremor and Ambien, read the abstract below in which the drug induced tremors abated while on “Ambien” and reappeared at discontinuation, with the result that it was reintroduced:
http://www.theannals.com/cgi/content/abstract/35/4/435

In the next link, a patient speaks about tremors abating while on Ambien.
http://brain.hastypastry.net/forums/showthread.php?t=62182

I hope this helps.

Answer by sutra
Mags answer is excellent. I just wanted to add that my husband who has Parkinson’s disease tried taking Ambien for insommnia. It worked fairly well at helping him get to sleep although he still slept only about 4 hours without waking. But the worst part was the next day. He said he felt like he was hung over. His regular medications didn’t seem to work and it took him 2 days to get back to where he felt normal. For him it definately was not worth it.

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