An update on sleep disorders and their treatment

Abstract

Over the past year, Progress in Neurology and Psychiatry has been running a series of articles on the major psychiatric drug groups, produced in association with the College of Mental Health Pharmacy. In the final article in the series, Michele Sie describes the main types of sleep disorder and their features, and provides an overview of their treatment. Copyright © 2010 Wiley Interface Ltd

Neural oscillations during non‐rapid eye movement sleep as biomarkers of circuit dysfunction in schizophrenia

“…Benzodiazepines such as diazepam and Z‐hypnotics (zolpidem, eszopiclone) are the current treatments of choice for sleep disorders (Sie, ). Benzodiazepines and Z‐hypnotics are positive allosteric modulators of GABA A receptors and each compound displays a differential affinity for the different GABA A alpha subunits.…”

Management guidelines for behavioural and psychotic symptoms in persons with dementia—A review article

“…In general the use of these drugs should not be promoted in the management of BPSD or insomnia, and where practical sleep hygiene techniques such as the promotion of activities and reduced caffeine intake should be the primary course of treatment [6]. There is a greater incidence of falls, worsening cognition and tolerance over a longer period of time Z drugs (zopiclone and zolpidem): note tolerance is high and the NNT after 2 weeks is over 20, so recommended as short term treatment up to 2 weeks, then stop and restart if successful for a further 2 weeks, stop and so on.…”