sleeping pills

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Dad Gets Prison for Drugging Girls at Sleepover

Michael Meyden said he just wanted them to go to sleep

(Newser) - A father annoyed that his 12-year-old daughter and her friends wouldn't go to sleep during a sleepover decided to force them to sleep by drugging them with benzodiazepine. For that, Michael Meyden of Lake Oswego, Oregon, has been sentenced to prison. The 57-year-old apologized during his sentencing hearing Monday...

7 Young Kids Hospitalized From Sleepover

Police say a child doled out sleeping pills; all are under the age of 8

(Newser) - Unsupervised children in a Virginia home were given sleeping pills by another child causing them to be hospitalized Wednesday evening, police said. Police in Hopewell were called to a residence around 5:30pm, where they found four children, ages 1 to 4, unresponsive, per the AP . Three more children found...

Ambien, Other Sleep Aids Get FDA's Strongest Warning

Injuries and deaths lead to adding 'black box' labels

(Newser) - The FDA is requiring its strongest warning labels be placed on Ambien, Sonata, Lunesta, and other prescription sleep medications. The "black box" label warns that side effects can lead to serious injury or death, Live Science reports. The FDA ordered the change after "rare but serious" incidents among...

For Insomnia, Toss the Sleeping Pills, Try Therapy

It may require more work, but researchers say the evidence supports pursuing therapy over pills

(Newser) - The American College of Physicians is issuing new guidelines on how to treat insomnia based on evidence suggesting that the side effects of sleeping pills are "underestimated," while the success of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT-I) is compelling. "The evidence is quite strong that cognitive behavioral therapy is...

Common Meds May Raise Risk of Alzheimer's in Seniors

Study: Link seen with long-term use of pills for insomnia, anxiety

(Newser) - Seniors dealing with insomnia or anxiety might want to take it easy on commonly prescribed drugs such as Ativan, Xanax, Valium, and Klonopin, a new study in the British Medical Journal suggests. Researchers in Canada found what looks to be a strong link between Alzheimer's and this class of...

Missing Oregon Mom's Death Ruled a Suicide

Jennifer Huston was found with an empty bottle of sleeping pills and a note

(Newser) - Just a day after finding missing Oregon mom Jennifer Huston's body, officials are ruling her death a suicide. Her husband first reported her missing after she left to run errands on the evening of July 24; the last known footage of her shows her entering a Rite Aid pharmacy,...

8.6M Americans Take Pills to Sleep

Use more common among women, older people

(Newser) - About 4% of Americans aged 20 and older—some 8.6 million of us—turn to prescription drugs like Lunesta and Ambien to catch a few winks, a study finds. In the first federal study on usage, researchers followed 17,000 people between 2005 and 2010. A quarter of them...

Sleep Drugs Under Gun for Doing Job Too Well

FDA is cracking down on drowsy drugs that affect drivers

(Newser) - Back in January , the FDA told drugmakers to reduce their recommended dosage for sleep aids in an effort to stop people from zonking out on their morning drive to work. Now it's cracking the whip. The agency says it will push manufacturers for more extensive driving tests, write...

FDA Demands Lower Dosages on Sleeping Pills

Ambien, Zolpimist seen impairing people in the morning

(Newser) - Sleeping drugs like Ambien and Zolpimist are going to have to come with lower recommended dosages from now on, the FDA declared today, in the hopes that it will lead to fewer zonked-out people climbing into driver's seats for their morning commute. Studies show that eight hours after taking...

Cops: Girl Drugs Parents' Milkshakes to Go Online
Cops: Girl
Drugs Parents'
Milkshakes
to Go Online
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Cops: Girl Drugs Parents' Milkshakes to Go Online

They passed out, and she logged on

(Newser) - A teenager who thought her parents' 10pm cutoff of the Internet was too strict spiked their milkshakes with prescription sleeping meds so she could go online, police say. It worked. When her parents passed out, the 15-year-old girl and a 16-year-old friend were able to log on, reports the Sacramento ...

Philip Roth: I Did Not 'Crack Up'

Novelist refutes magazine, says it was a bad reaction to sleeping pill

(Newser) - Philip Roth isn't happy with the Atlantic: A recent piece in the magazine said he suffered from "a 'crack-up' in his mid-50s," and the novelist says that's simply "not true." The Atlantic Wire points out that the episode, "whatever you call it,...

Sleeping Pills Lead to Risk of Early Death?

Study finds risk, but sleep expert criticizes it

(Newser) - A new study finds that taking even one sleeping pill over the course of a year increases the risk of early death, but a sleep expert was quick to jump on the study's flaws. Researchers at San Diego's Viterbi Family Sleep Center found that adults who took one...

Heath Hated Taking Sleeping Pills: Pal

Rapper dishes as he prepares to debut single

(Newser) - The sad irony of Heath Ledger’s overdose is that he hated taking the sleeping pills that killed him. “He was an extremely active person who didn't sleep much,” rapper and childhood friend N’FA tells the Sun . “Lots of people take sleeping things. I just remember...

Americans Sleepless, Sexless

Not getting enough rest takes a toll on work, social, sex lives

(Newser) - Americans are getting by on less and less rest, a survey by the National Sleep Foundation reveals. Fewer than half of Americans say they get a good night's sleep, and average sleep times are about 2 hours shorter than those reported 40 years ago. Sleeplessness is taking a toll not...

Alec Baldwin Hospitalized After Fight With Daughter

Actor is fine after threatening to take pills

(Newser) - Alec Baldwin was rushed to the hospital just after midnight after 14-year-old daughter Ireland—the same one he famously called a "rude, thoughtless little pig" in 2008—called 911 saying her father allegedly threatened to take pills following an argument and was "unresponsive." Baldwin was released shortly...

Ginsburg Hospitalized Again
 Ginsburg Hospitalized Again 

Ginsburg Hospitalized Again

Justice suffers adverse reaction to medications, released after overnight stay

(Newser) - Ruth Bader Ginsburg is out of the hospital after suffering an adverse reaction to medication last night. While waiting for takeoff on a plane bound for London, Ginsburg because extremely drowsy and fell from her seat because of a reaction between a prescription sleeping aid and an OTC cold medication,...

Heath Almost Gave Up Pills
 Heath Almost Gave Up Pills 
GLOSSIES

Heath Almost Gave Up Pills

Friends, colleagues remember tragic actor

(Newser) - Heath Ledger was a complicated actor who quit using marijuana and alcohol and came close to giving up the sleeping pills that may have killed him, friends and colleagues tell Vanity Fair in a profile. Though he was leery of summer blockbusters—“He was afraid it would define him...

Money Woes Boost Sales of Sedatives, Antidepressants

Jump comes despite dive in marketing dollars

(Newser) - Here's a downer: The sale of antidepressants and sleeping pills have jumped amid the recession, and 31% of Americans asked about their sleeping habits say financial worries are keeping them up at night. The 7% jump in sleep aids comes despite hundreds of millions of fewer dollars spent on their...

New Yorkers Fight Crisis With Pills

Prescriptions shoot up in Sept., Oct.

(Newser) - At least there's one market that's booming in New York—the market for pills for your sleeplessness, anxiety, and depression, Crain’s New York Business reports. The meltdown in the financial industry has caused a surge in prescriptions: In September, as Lehman Brothers was collapsing, and AIG and Merrill Lynch...

Jet Lag Pill Can Reboot Biological Clock

New drug could replace addictive sedatives as travel cure

(Newser) - A new drug could allow travelers to fly past jet lag without the lingering drowsiness of addictive sedatives, the BBC reports. The drug resets natural sleep rhythms by adjusting the body’s sleep hormone, melatonin, allowing sleep to come sooner and last longer. If approved, Tasimelteon could provide welcome relief...

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