Posted by katekite on June 22, 2002, at 15:30:58
In reply to Re: Alive at Night, Dead in the Morning! » Mr Beev, posted by JonW on June 22, 2002, at 12:58:45
Hi -- Ambien and Sonata and Restoril all act just like benzodiazepines, which is why they can be called addictive. The withdrawal after prolonged use (a few weeks) might be worse insomnia than you had before, for a few days or week. Or, at some point you may need to increase the dose to keep up with acclimating to it.
The reason they are advertised as non-benzodiazepines is that their chemical structure is technically quite different. So the drug companies can say it. But, they bind to a place the same or very close to where klonopin etc would bind to (on the gaba receptor). For all intents and purposes, they are benzodiazepines without significant anti-anxiety properties.
If you are not worried about the benzo acclimation, or haven't had a problem stopping benzos in the past, its probably not a big deal. Seems to hit some people worse than others. Sonata and Ambien are probably not as bad this way as most true benzodiazepines.
I have pretty bad insomnia and I'm also dependent on klonopin at the moment (when my insomnia gets a bit better I will get off of it). So I have prescriptions for ambien, sonata and vistoril (like benadryl, a sedating antihistamine and definitely not addictive in any way) and I rotate them and skip a day altogether now and then, so that I don't do more than two days in a row of any particular drug. It's worked so far and I haven't had to up the dose of anything.
So that's my understanding of ambien.
kate
poster:katekite
thread:110477
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020617/msgs/110491.html