Effects of Zopiclone on the Sleep of Chronic Insomniacs

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the short- and intermediate-term (21 days) effectiveness, as well as the carryover and withdrawal effects of 7.5 mg of zopiclone, a new short-acting hypnotic agent. 6 patients with chronic insomnia, ranging in age from 33 to 57, participated in the study. Both EEG sleep recordings and subjective rating scales were used to evaluate the drug. Zopiclone increased the total sleep time throughout its 3-week administration period although only during the short-term period was this increase statistically above baseline. There was no carryover effect nor rebound insomnia upon drug withdrawal. The drug significantly increased the duration of stage 2 sleep, decreased stages 3 and 4 sleep, and had no effect on the duration of REM sleep. There were no reported side effects.

Effect of zopiclone and temazepam on sleep EEG parameters, psychomotor and memory functions in healthy elderly volunteers

“…Wright et al 1986;Tiberge et al 1988;Mann et al 1992;Kanno et al 1993) and insomniacs (e.g. Mamelak et al 1982;Jovanovic and Dreyfus 1983;Fleming et al 1988;Pecknold et al 1990;Eligulashvili et al 1997) reporting in concordance a beneficial effect on sleep latency and maintenance.…”

Comparative Meta-Analysis of Pharmacotherapy and Behavior Therapy for Persistent Insomnia

“…Five studies (3%) were ruled out because subjects were not withdrawn from hypnotic medications before the trial. Twenty-one studies satisfied criteria for meta-analysis (34,35,(40)(41)(42)(43)(44)(45)(46)(47)(48)(49)(50)(51)(52)(53)(54)(55)(56)(57)(58).…”

Benzodiazepine Side Effects: Role of Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics

“…How ever, these drugs have not been studied in the sleep laboratory as thoroughly as others, and their withdrawal period has often not been thoroughly and adequately assessed [178][179][180][181][182][183][184], Nevertheless, two of five studies that assessed adequately withdrawal of zolpidem reported rebound insomnia [185,186], while the other three did not [185,187,188]. With zopiclone, one study [189] reported no re bound insomnia, while another [190] suggest ed the presence of strong sleep disturbance following withdrawal of the drug. Also, with both zopiclone and zolpidem.…”