It's so easy to fall asleep after a tablet of sleeping pills.

It's a habit.

However, studies show that pills are not the best remedy for insomnia.

Foreign scientists call on doctors to move away from the use of sleeping pills, referring to innovative methods that allow changing the behavior and pattern of patients' sleep.

After analyzing the clinical data collected over the past 15 years, the American College of Physicians (ACP) has published new recommendations for the treatment of chronic insomnia.

Now cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is recognized in the US as first-line therapy for adults. Sleeping pills for chronic insomnia are recommended to appoint in the absence of CPT results, and only for a short reception.

This is fundamentally different from our usual approach: do not go to sleep - go to the pharmacy!.

"Drugs do not return a person a natural full-fledged sleep, and with their side effects have to be considered. This is true for all age groups, but especially for elderly patients with a bouquet of diseases, "says Nitin Damle of ACP.

In addition to the possible addiction, many prescription sleeping pills cause confusion of thoughts and dips in memory, break attention. Their side effects are dangerous when driving a car and doing responsible work. Also, sleeping pills load the liver and kidneys, which in aging people need special attention.

Temporary problems with thinking, balance and reaction are far from the most serious consequences of sleeping pills. With prolonged admission, it is possible to develop severe psychoemotional disorders. Can we talk about the safety of this therapy?.

Among the most commonly prescribed pills for insomnia are sedative hypnotics, which "slow down" the activity of the brain and inject it into a state of sleep.

This includes benzodiazepines (Halcion) and nonbenzodiazepine drugs (Ambien, Sonata).

Large-scale studies have revealed a doubled risk of road accidents, accidental falls and hip fractures, hospitalizations and deaths in elderly people taking sedative hypnotics for the treatment of insomnia.

The American Geriatric Society (AGS) opposes the use of benzodiazepines and other sedative hypnotics as first-line therapy in elderly patients.

medbe. en.