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FDA approves new insomnia drug

neversickanymore

neversickanymore

Moderator: DS
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FDA approves new insomnia drug
August 14, 2014

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Wednesday it has approved a new insomnia drug made by Merck & Co.

The drug, to be called Belsomra, is the first in a new class of sedatives that block chemicals in the brain called orexins that help keep people awake.

Belsomra, known generically as suvorexant, has the potential to cause next-day sleepiness and impaired driving. As a result, the FDA said, no more than one pill should be taken per night and the dose should not exceed 20 milligrams.

The FDA had asked Merck to study the next-day driving performance of people who took the drug amid concerns the sedative could lead to next-day drowsiness.

The test showed impaired driving in patients who took 20 milligrams of the drug. Patients therefore "should be cautioned against next-day driving or activities requiring full mental alertness," the FDA said in a statement.

Even those who take a lower dose should be made aware of the potential for next-day driving impairment because individuals may respond differently to any given drug, the agency said.

The FDA approved the drug in 5, 10, 15 and 20 milligram doses.

continued here http://www.foxnews.com/health/2014/08/14/fda-approves-new-insomnia-drug/
 
Me too, they said its addictive so it must provide some sort of effect, who knows how nice it feels though!
 
Sounds pretty shit to me.
The reason I use sleep drugs is so I can sleep and get up and be functional the morning.
Thanks again Big Pharma.
 
If they are able to figure this system out would they not likely be able to cure addiction? if not cure then greatly diminish some of its power?

Orexin, also called hypocretin, is a neurotransmitter that regulates arousal, wakefulness, and appetite.[1] The most common form of narcolepsy, in which the sufferer briefly loses muscle tone (cataplexy), is caused by a lack of orexin in the brain due to destruction of the cells that produce it.[2]
The brain contains very few cells that produce orexin; in a human brain, about 10,000 to 20,000 neurons[2] in the hypothalamus.[1] However, the axons from these neurons extend throughout the entire brain and spinal cord,[3] where there are also receptors for orexin.
Orexin was discovered in 1998 almost simultaneously by two independent groups of rat-brain researchers.[4][5] One group named it orexin, from orexis, meaning "appetite" in Greek; the other group named it hypocretin, because it is produced in the hypothalamus and bears a weak resemblance to secretin, a hormone found in the gut.[2] The scientific community has not yet settled on a consensus for which word to use.
Click to expand...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orexin
 
Hopefully it's better than Ambien, which is crap in my opinion, although it does have a little bit of recreational value in the fact that it's a relatively decent short-lived anxiolytic with some (very mild) trippyness included.

Oddly enough the thing that puts me to sleep on a relatively consistent basis is OTC antihistamines. I take DPH on a nightly basis and I still get something out of it usually, although who knows how much of it is "real" and how much of it is the placebo effect of a nighttime pill taking ritual. I can still get good amounts of natural sleep but it's definitely been getting harder in recent years, which is a shame because I don't really like that cycle of "I need drugs to get myself going in the morning, and drugs to put me down at night"...when it's just some coffee in the morning and some beer at night it's no big deal but it gets kind of oppressive when you're using more exotic substances.

As someone who has difficulty sleeping I'd be interested in trying this drug, though.
 
I would personally want orexin agonists for wakefulness/ADHD; I don't believe anything is close to being approved for this purpose though.

I am 100% satisfied with temazepam for insomnia/sleep for my own life
 
spacejunk said:
Sounds pretty shit to me.
The reason I use sleep drugs is so I can sleep and get up and be functional the morning.
Thanks again Big Pharma.
Click to expand...

Yea no thanks; I prefer just sticking with weed for my insomnia which I know works like a charm and gives me zero hangover the next day.
 
Captain.Heroin said:
I am 100% satisfied with temazepam for insomnia/sleep for my own life
Click to expand...

Apparently Temazepam has the highest 'abuse liability' among all Rx Benzodiazepines due to it reportedly being number 1 in a poll regarding which benzo is the most recreational (feeling high or euphoric) which was completed by a large number of recreational Benzodiazepine users. So I guess I'm not surprised that you are satisfied with it, although I don't mean to imply that you value a drug purely by its potential to induce a feeling of euphoria.

Personally, (although I don't really find Benzos to be particularly recreational) I prefer Alprazolam, but I digress (apologies for going off topic).

I am waiting to see if I can get my hands on some Suvorexant, although, not particularly excited about it. But if it can help me get more quality R.E.M. sleep compared to Alprazolam (which AFAIK is horrible when it comes to R.E.M. sleep), and I can tolerate the side effects, then I may probably consider eventually obtaining a prescription if possible.
 
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