For many years, modern medicine has been searching for the perfect sleeping pills. Sleeping pills are a special topic in medicine because they have a lot to do with addiction medicine. Of course, not every sleeping pill can cause addiction, but lighter sleeping pills such as valerian tablets, doxylamine succinate (contained in Schlafsterne), melatonin (or Circadin) have short and insufficient effects. Benzodiazepines, on the other hand, relieve anxiety, which often leads to sleep disorders and are often used by GPs as sleeping pills, although this is not correct. Antidepressants such as mirtazapine are more often used as sleeping pills, but patients often complain of fatigue and drowsiness after their use, which is incompatible with driving, for example. Z-drugs are the 3rd choice of sleep medicine, they have a long and sufficient effect, but can be very addictive. There are patients who struggle for years with addiction to zolpidem, or zopiclone. Many GPs give up in this fight an...
A personal blog of Tanya G. Guleria, the author of the medical series "Theory of Autoimmunity"