Benzos Is zolpidem any less dependence-causing than benzos?

[Swimmingdancer]

Been taking zolpidem for sleep as I was told it was less dependence-causing than benzos - but is this actually true? Not talking about mental addiction, just potential for physiological dependence.

 

[shreddedlettuce]

I know that withdrawal effects from Zolpidem would be the same as other benzos, physiologically I can only answer from my experience with Zopiclone. (I have used ambien before, but it stopped working for me after about 1 week)
I now only take one tablet for sleep.(Zopiclone)
When I start getting down to the last one or two tablets I start getting very anxious about the how/where and when I am going to get my refill. If I am one or two days short on my script (it happens rarely, but does happen), I cannot think of anything more important than getting my Zopiclone and would use diazepam for sleep for those one/two days and will be at the pharmacy first thing in the morning on the day I can get my refill.
The anxiety I mention above is not only mental, it is physiological and physical too.

If you only are using on the nights you need it, then it wouldn't be..........NAH scratch that, I do think it is as dependence-causing (mental, physical and physiological) than benzos, end of story.

 

[RobotRipping]

IME it's not quite as bad but can still cause a hell of a dependence and a worse withdrawal than regular benzos if abused. If used therapeutically you should be fine.

 

[cook]

Its worse than most benzos what comes to dependency. Z withdrawals are absolute horror but quite fast, never want to experience it again but be very careful with it. At least couple days off in a week would be my recipe.Its funny how benzodiazepines did not even touch that panic and ultimate anxiety, I thought that benzos are just expanded z drugs but cleaely there is some mechanism that is unique to zolpidem. Not a surprise considering it brings people up from comas lol.

 

[Fig]

I was addicted to zolpidem several years ago and didn't realize it at the time because I was abusing benzos like crazy and I withdrew from both at the same time and benzos (30-50mg Diaz per day+ 30-90 mg temaz per day at the final months).

Recently I returned to zolpidem due to insomnia. I am completely clean of benzos and have greatly turned my life around, but the zolpidem I can feel becoming a problem so I'm gonna cut it loose. I took it every night for the past month and didn't refill when I ran out because I was out of town. I developed extreme nausea and vomiting, very low energy, depression, zaps, insomnia obviously, terrible feeling. Truly awful. Just getting over that yesterday and today I'm much better. So three days of hell. It is a lot faster than benzo wd, but I'm not sure I would have felt that bad from say 5 or 10 mg Diaz per day for 30 days without abuse.

 

[cook]

It's the only benzo or z-drugs that I've developed a very deep psychological addiction. I don't know why wikipedia states that zolpidem has only very weak anxiolytic effects, to me it has always relieved anxiety better than anything else.

I refuse to take prescriptions on it any more, because it causes only trouble apart from it's fun as hell. I still get it unofficially at small quantities so that I won't have the time to get dependent. It takes 20-30 pills for me used every night 10-20mg to get the hellish withdrawals for couple of days only, but the intensity is just crazy.

 

[Captain.Heroin]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22560522

I'd be more worried about the increased likelihood of developing cancer.

For this reason I will never try Z-drugs.

 

[Swimmingdancer]

Thanks for your replies everyone. Yikes, now I'm worried. I'm just using low doses for sleep, not recreationally or during the day or anything, but still. Lesson is I should always check Bluelight for people's personal experience and resources like Google Scholar etc for medical info before automatically believing a doctor. I'm going to try to reduce my use and spend more effort on alternating with natural sleep remedies. I was starting to go crazy from not sleeping for so long and felt taking drugs to sleep was a worthwhile trade-off, but I do not want to do that long-term.

A related question, this same doctor said that alternating zolpidem with benzos would prevent dependence to either?! I am now thinking that is totally inaccurate. Maybe it would slightly decrease the progression of tolerance and dependence, because they do have slightly different binding profiles, but I would think they would have significant cross-tolerance/cross-dependence?

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22560522

I'd be more worried about the increased likelihood of developing cancer.

For this reason I will never try Z-drugs.

That is definitely worrisome. But I wonder if there are any other studies - that one does not show causation, only correlation, so it could just be that the type of people that take zolpidem are more prone to developing cancer due to other factors (they may have more health problems in general, obviously have issues with sleep and/or anxiety, might smoke, use more drugs in general, etc).

 

[shreddedlettuce]

A related question, this same doctor said that alternating zolpidem with benzos would prevent dependence to either?!

Weird doctors.lol.

I would think if it is alternating every night you would get addicted to both, but spreading out doses and getting a few days a week sleep without the need for a tablet, then tolerance would be a bit slower by alternating meds.
Maybe that's what your doctor meant, but I think he/she should have been a bit more specific about that statement.

 

[blight12]

Swim, the worst thing with the Z drugs is the risky behavior and memory blackouts and the fastest worse tolerance I have ever had from any drug
I'm not sure on physical addiction and withdrawals since I never got this after I stopped dead (due to tolerance related OD hospital scare) but I never received withdrawals from heavy daily alcohol or benzo abuse either so I may not be the best example.

What might be relevant in some way is that I heard on here somewhere that it isnt a CNS depressant which was kinda surprising. Can anybody confirm this and how it might change the risk factors?

 

[shreddedlettuce]

Swim, the worst thing with the Z drugs is the risky behavior and memory blackouts and the fastest worse tolerance I have ever had from any drug
I'm not sure on physical addiction and withdrawals since I never got this after I stopped dead (due to tolerance related OD hospital scare) but I never received withdrawals from heavy daily alcohol or benzo abuse either so I may not be the best example.

What might be relevant in some way is that I heard on here somewhere that it isnt a CNS depressant which was kinda surprising. Can anybody confirm this and how it might change the risk factors?

We don't use swim here. You should know these things by now.



only messing around with you.

 

[blight12]

haha, i was hoping somebody would take the bait, without realizing, but alas, lol.

 

[cook]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22560522

I'd be more worried about the increased likelihood of developing cancer.

For this reason I will never try Z-drugs.

According to wiki the risk of cancer is elevated with benzodiazepines too:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrazepam#Cancer

What might be relevant in some way is that I heard on here somewhere that it isnt a CNS depressant which was kinda surprising. Can anybody confirm this and how it might change the risk factors?

It's not true. people have died combining zolpidem with opiates, in fact it might be even more hazardous than combinations with regular benzos. I'm sure if it is CNS depressant itself, but at least it magnifies the opiate respiratory depression.

 

[shreddedlettuce]

Yup, I have to agree with Cook on this one.

Anyways, here is the package insert/patient information for Zopiclone.
I can't find one for Zolpidem, but being a z-drug the warnings would be the same.

Also the paragraph about dependence .........
"Abrupt termination of treatment will be accompanied by withdrawal symptoms. In severe cases the following symptoms may occur: derealization, depersonalization, hyperacusis, numbness and tingling of extremities, hypersensitivity to light, noise and physical contact, hallucinations or epileptic seizures. "
...... reads exactly like any other benzo.

Source

 

[tricomb]

Zolpidem is indeed a CNS depressant, which should not be used in combination with other CNS depressants without extreme caution.

People have definitely died combining zolpidem with other CSN depressants like opioids or alcohol, I have no idea who started the zolpidem-isn't-a-CNS-depressant rumor but it's complete bullshit and anyone with a shred of logic should be able to see through that.

It's a hypnotic / sleeping pill designed to work on your GABAergic receptors. If that's not a CNS depressant, then frankly, I'm not sure what is.

People claimed a lot of ludicrous things regarding z-drugs, things that sounded too good to be true...were. Like how it's supposedly less habit forming? Total bullshit. I remember countless doctors pushing zolpidem tablets on me like it was candy for my debilitating insomnia, and I remember being told that it was not addictive and that it maintained it's efficacy without ever-escalating doses. It was all bullshit lies, Z-drugs made my insomnia worse and added in a ton of side effects that ranged from mild disorientation, to completely overwhelming hallucinations and delirium.

They are shitty drugs that were marketed as being better than benzodiazepines, but it didn't take long for people to see through the bullshit. Z-drug dependency turned out to be even more of a hell than benzodiazepine dependency.... I could talk for hours about my negative experiences with z-drugs, and I can't tell you a single experience with z-drugs that I enjoyed or felt that I benefited from therapeutically.

 

[cook]

The doctors give z-drugs like candies because they have mostly bought the bullshit. Doctors love these so called smarter drugs which have narrower bands of action. First line treatments for insomnia. For me they are very effective, but the side-effects and addiction for me are just too harsh. I have gotten myself on nitrazepam since after I told I can't use z-drugs for occasional insomnia, not very recreational nor euphoric but does the job which makes it a good sleep aid.

 

[Captain.Heroin]

According to wiki the risk of cancer is elevated with benzodiazepines too:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrazepam#Cancer

Benzodiazepine usage for more than one to six months at prescribed doses is associated with an increased risk of the development of ovarian cancer.

I don't use benzodiazepines for 1 to 6 months at prescribed dosages, nor do I have ovaries.

I wonder if this "1 to 6 month of prescribed usage" applies to the other examples of cancer seen with benzos.

They are shitty drugs that were marketed as being better than benzodiazepines, but it didn't take long for people to see through the bullshit. Z-drug dependency turned out to be even more of a hell than benzodiazepine dependency.... I could talk for hours about my negative experiences with z-drugs, and I can't tell you a single experience with z-drugs that I enjoyed or felt that I benefited from therapeutically.

Wow really? Z drugs cause greater dependency than benzos and they don't even give the same effects? They sound real whack. I'm so glad I haven't tried Z drugs.

 

[blight12]

Great, thanks guys for confirming! I will try that post here and understand the context around it being stated as not a CNS depressant to see what they meant.

And cook, yes, they do hand them out like candies, its retarded. Here I could simply go to a GP and ask for it and get a 6-12 month script easy.
Fortunately after abusing them, even years later they still arent fun anymore, the magic is lost lol.

 

[tricomb]

Great, thanks guys for confirming! I will try that post here and understand the context around it being stated as not a CNS depressant to see what they meant.

And cook, yes, they do hand them out like candies, its retarded. Here I could simply go to a GP and ask for it and get a 6-12 month script easy.
.

exactly.

 

[crazycatman]

A related question, this same doctor said that alternating zolpidem with benzos would prevent dependence to either?! I am now thinking that is totally inaccurate. Maybe it would slightly decrease the progression of tolerance and dependence, because they do have slightly different binding profiles, but I would think they would have significant cross-tolerance/cross-dependence?

This sounds a bit far fetched, the binding profiles aren't all that different - both affect the GABAa receptors.

Something like 1 week benzos or z drugs (GABAa), 1 week ghb (GABAb), 1 week antihistamines (adrenergic receptors), 1 week off would probably work better for avoiding dependence.