Ambien
Ambien Class Action Filed in NY
Federal Court: Warnings Needed About Adverse Side Effects
Bizarre & Dangerous Behaviors
Reported Nationwide Related to Ambien use. It Doesn't Give Some
Consumers a Good Night's Sleep But Causes Them to Enter into a
Hypnotic State & Drive Cars & Binge Eat Without Any Memory.
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Ambien, zolpidem, is a central nervous system
depressant used to help people sleep, however, recent reports are
showing unusual sleep actions. Besides sleep walking and
driving, there are reports of patients taking insomnia medication
Ambien, getting up at night, eating loads of food, going back to bed,
and remembering nothing of the event next morning.
Studies by researchers at the Minnesota Regional Sleep
Disorders Center in Minneapolis, and at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester,
Minn., have found that some users of Ambien, the best-selling sleeping
pill in this country, develop an unusual side effect: an eating
disorder in which they sleepwalk into their kitchens, forage for food
or even cook it, devour hundreds or even thousands of calories, and
then return to bed. |
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The New York Times reported some extreme sleep eating
cases. One woman gained 100 pounds before finally realizing that
Ambien was at fault. Another woman in a full body cast managed to
sleepwalk to the kitchen, where she was found at various times frying
bacon and eggs, lighting the oven, or eating a sandwich. Still another
sleepwalker wolfed down a whole package of hamburger buns.
Ambien Class Action Lawsuit
New York City Attorney Susan Chana Lask filed a class
action complaint in the Southern District of New York on March 6,
2006, Case No. 06CIV1762. Ms. Lask interviewed people nationwide and
an expert pharmacologist-all confirmed the dangerous side effects of
Ambien.
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Four class representatives relate their experiences in
the Complaint of taking Ambien for good nights sleep and waking up
only to find themselves in jail, driving cars while in a hypnotic
state and binge eating at night where their spouses shoveled food from
their mouths. Attorney Susan Chana Lask explains, "The purpose of our
lawsuit is to insure Ambien warns consumers and doctors about the
adverse side effects of sleep walking and sleep eating because it is
unfair to Ambien users to enter this hypnotic state then sleep walk
and drive, putting themselves and others in danger. You don't want to
be that other person crossing the road when an Ambien user is
hypnotically driving towards you. The worst part of those side effects
is that these people have absolutely no memory of what happened to
them after they took Ambien." |
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The filed complaint is at
http://www.appellate-brief.com/ambien.html.
Sleep-eating can occur spontaneously or in association
with other drugs, so Ambien may not be the only culprit. But the
researchers think that there's something about Ambien that leads to
sleep-eating in some people. Presumably only a very small percentage
of users are susceptible, but with millions of Americans taking Ambien
every year, the sleep-eaters could number in the thousands.
Ambien News
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