February 21, 2008
TGA orders warning labels for Stilnox
Australia's medicines regulator has decided against re-classifying the controversial sleeping pill Stilnox, instead ordering boxes to carry warnings.
A Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) committee considered whether to reschedule zolpidem, sold as Stilnox in Australia, to schedule eight, making it as difficult to obtain as drugs such as rohypnol.
Zolpidem is currently a schedule four prescription medicine.
It follows reports of bizarre and sometimes dangerous sleep-related behaviours such as sleep-walking and sleep-driving in some users of the drug.
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To January 4, 2008, the TGA had received 1,032 reports of suspected reactions to zolpidem products, most received over the past 12 months and relating to sleep-walking, sleep-eating and sleep-driving.
http://news.theage.com.au/tga-orders-warning-labels-for-stilnox/20080221-1tne.html
Family warn of sleeping pill danger
Dylan Welch
February 19, 2008
She was young, gifted and only weeks away from receiving her doctorate.
A young philosophy graduate, she had been offered scholarships at Oxford and Cambridge. The eminent philosopher Raimond Gaita lauded her as a future leader in the field.
Instead, Mairead Costigan died when she plunged about 20 metres from a raised cycleway on Sydney's Harbour Bridge last September.
Her family believes it was another tragedy involving the controversial sleeping pill Stilnox. Mairead had been on the drug for about eight months, though she switched to another Z-class sleeping pill, Imovane, the week before she died.
Stilnox has been implicated in other deaths and blamed for bizarre behaviour including driving, eating and even sexual misadventure while sleeping.
While the family acknowledges that Imovane may have been the trigger on the night of her fall, it is convinced that the prescription of Stilnox for eight months - when only four weeks is recommended - was the core reason for her death.
The Age
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