Pol's 'zombie' story echoes nightmares of other users

[pnwmom]

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/415301p-350960c.html

BY HELEN KENNEDY
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

"Rep. Patrick Kennedy's claims that he doesn't remember crashing his car after popping a popular sleeping pill may sound hard to believe, but experts say it could fit the description of an "Ambien zombie."

"The bizarreness of it certainly sounds consistent with a side effect from these medications," said Dr. Michel Cramer Bornemann, a specialist at the Minnesota Regional Sleep Disorders Center.

"He has these other complicating medical conditions that would increase the possibility of complex nocturnal behavior."

SNIP

"Patients have reported driving, cooking, eating - even shoplifting - in their sleep. They generally don't remember doing it and have a hard time believing evidence that they did."

[Pavulon]

1. Drug has Side Effects

Clearly state these. DO NOT DRIVE or CONSUME DRUGS, INCREASES the effects of other drugs like NARCOTICS.

Bottom line if he drank ANY alcohol or took any narcotic he caused the problem. He was DUI.

I have taken ambien and sonata when traveling and had no side effect. I choose to stay in bed and get 8 hours of sleep. Like the label states.

Drugs are not chewing gum..Don't take them unless you have to.

[Missy M]

2. Drugs affect different people in different ways....

a family member of mine took Sonata and had such an adverse reaction he had to go to the emergency room. He takes Ambien and has had some weird reactions but because of a complex medical condition he needs help to sleep.

[pnwmom]

5. You don't get it. Some of these people go to bed fully intending to sleep

for the eight hours. But sometime later, aroused but not conscious, they get out of bed and start doing things.

The Ambien can cause them to sleep-walk, sleep-talk, sleep-eat, sleep-drink, sleep-drive, etc., without conscious volition and without remembering the next day.

This happened to my mother, who was given it when she had fractures -- along with Advil -- to help her sleep. Unfortunately, she was waking up at 4 a.m. or so and doing things that she normally wouldn't have done (like calling 911 to say she had been kidnapped.) She also unlocked doors, operated machinery, etc. All while basically asleep.

[Texasgal]

8. An d there are many who DON'T have

side effects.

I am trying to understand you, but I am having a hard time. What exactly is your point? I am not trying to ugly... I am just trying to understand where you are coming from. :shrug:

[pnwmom]

9. I'm reacting to posts like this one:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=1115719&mesg_id=1117258


Some people are SURE that Kennedy can't be in rehab for Ambien, and the implication is that he's lying.

[foo_bar]

10. lots of people didn't die from Vioxx, Seldane, or Thalidomide

I don't see a problem with Ambien in a "supervised clinical setting", e.g., wrist restraints, but doling it out PRN is asking for mass somnambulism.

[Texasgal]

11. You really canot say that...

There are MILLIONS that take it with no problems.

Drugs have side effects, some of them are adverse for some folks, and others not.

Ambien is not the devil here....

[foo_bar]

12. I cannot say what?

[foo_bar]

3. by Helen... Kennedy?

But there is an abundance of Ambien sleep-walking/driving anecdotes. I took it without incident, but my mom (allegedly) got up in the middle of the night, filled a kettle with water, lit the oven, and went back to sleep. Your mileage may vary, so to speak.

[ClintonTyree]

4. But our MSM will have none of that.......

HE WAS FALLING DOWN DRUNK! Or so the "liberal media" will have us believe. :grr: Judge, jury and executioner.....the MSM passed judgment and that's all there is to it. Now, are there any missing white girls anywhere?

There have been stories about this "Ambien" condition for months now but the MSM apparently never heard any of it. :eyes:

[glitch]

6. Night of the Walking Zambien, coming to your town soon! nt

[prole_for_peace]

7. a co-workers mom started night eating after taking ambien.

she would raid the fridge in the middle of the night and not remember doing it the next morning. the family only found out something was going on when she started going across the street to her daughter's house and letting her self in to raid HER fridge.

in the recent ambien zombie stories in the press i heard about one woman that said the ambien made her drink. she took it and went to bed. in the morning she woke up and there was an opened, half empty bottle of wine in the kitchen that wasn't there when she went to bed. scary..