Drug treatment of insomnia?

This is an automatically translated article.

To cure insomnia, it is important to find the cause of insomnia. However, it is not always easy to find the cause, in case the cause cannot be found, the support of sleeping pills is needed. If there is no physical damage, it is mostly due to arousal, stress, anxiety, overthinking.
Humans, depending on age, have long or short, shallow or deep sleep. Babies and very old people (over 90 years old) sleep a lot, up to 10-15 hours a day, adults need 7-8 hours of sleep/day.
If these normal sleep hours are not achieved, accompanied by difficulty falling asleep and not having good and deep sleep, daytime activities will be impaired, this phenomenon is called insomnia. Temporary insomnia is insomnia for less than 2 weeks, chronic insomnia is defined as 3 months or more.

1. Causes of insomnia

Insomnia has many causes:
May be due to anxiety, depression, stress (stress) Mental behavior disorder Due to depression, gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, respiratory, urinary, neurological diseases , skin, musculoskeletal... pain in general Sleep apnea Due to alienation from home, living environment such as noise, music, odors and especially drugs. Many substances cause insomnia such as caffeine, nicotine, amphetamine, corticosteroids, diuretics, beta-blockers and beta-agonists, oral contraceptives, aminophylin, thyroid hormone tricyclics...

2. Medications for insomnia, sedatives

Barbitals: These drugs, which were used a lot and widely in the last century, now have many new safer drugs, which are only used in a certain range, such as anesthesia, for patients with epilepsy..
Benzodiazepines: Drugs with many derivatives are most commonly used, each derivative has sedative effects such as: calming, anxiolytic, treatment of sleep disorders caused by stimulation, fatigue and anxiety, anti-anxiety. convulsions, muscle spasms. Some derivatives are also used to make drugs to stop alcohol...
These drugs have quite similar effects, but there are many differences in the level of action, duration of action (short, medium, long). ), the half-life is as little as a few hours, as long as 100 hours. Examples are estazolam with a medium duration of action, a half-life of 10-24 hours, flurazepam, a long half-life, a half-life of up to 100 hours.
Most of these drugs leave unpleasant undesirable effects such as lethargy, fatigue, dizziness...
The most important thing to pay attention to when using benzodiazepine derivatives is:
Yes May become dependent if used in high doses, long term. When not taking the drug, there are withdrawal symptoms such as headache, insomnia, anxiety, pain and muscle tension, irritability, confusion, possible tremors, convulsions, hallucinations and forgetfulness. It is necessary to have a prescription for the dose and duration of use by a specialist. The drug has many contraindications: people with myasthenia gravis, depression, pregnant women in the first 3 months, the last 3 months of pregnancy and those who are breastfeeding.
It is forbidden to drink alcohol and alcoholic products (beer, light wine, sticky wine...) or use it at the same time with other central nervous system depressants, antidepressants, antiepileptic drugs, antihistamines H1 soothing ... because if taken with these drugs will increase the sedative effect to dangerous levels.
Do not use for people who are standing, driving, working at height or in dangerous environments; people who have to stay up at night (on night duty), who have to focus their mind and thoughts on work. Elderly people can fall as a side effect of the drug.
Soothing H1 antihistamines: based on the ethylamine group, H1 antihistamines have been synthesized for use in cases of allergy, nausea, vomiting, rash, vertigo, but only diphenhydramine and promethazine are used. in insomnia.
Side effects:
Central nervous system depression, deep sleep, fatigue, dizziness, loss of coordination or vice versa irritation with the elderly and children. The drug also causes headaches, colloidal secretions (dry mouth, blurred vision, constipation) especially prostate tumor growth.

Other drugs: Drugs such as benzoctamine have a sedative effect but are less sedating than diazepam;
Buspiron has the main anti-anxiety effect, non-sedating Captodiam has a mild sedative effect Etifoxine for anxiety treatment and regulates the autonomic nervous system Hydroxyzin with easily excitable nerves and causes mild sleep Mephenoxalon used in nervous tension, increased emotions, autonomic disturbances ; meprobamate with anxiety, nervous excitement and trouble sleeping Trimetozin causes sedation, anxiolytic but not sedation and no muscle relaxation Valnoctamide sedating anxiolytic due to dysfunction Zolpidem receptor-specific agonist complex center. Herbs The transmission of lotus mind, lotus stamens, Vong leaves, Thien Ly flower, passion flower, tang white skin, longan, dan ginseng, apple tree... according to folk experience, have more or less sedative effects. However, to be effective and effective, the drug needs to be standardized on all aspects, including clinical, similar to passiflozine (passiflore and aubepine) or passinevryl (passiflore, aubepine, valerane, valerane). - valerian, saule - willow) with the proper dosage form is much better.
Insomnia is a bad thing in life. It greatly affects daily life, work, study and psychophysiology. Sleeping pills only have supportive effects, not cure the root cause of the disease. Medication should be taken from a low dose and it is important to avoid overuse of it and to take it as prescribed by your doctor. Do not drink tea, coffee and psychostimulants, especially at night. Drinking a cup of hot milk, gentle exercise, and sleep hygiene proved to be helpful.
In case if insomnia persists, you should go to medical facilities to be checked, find the cause and have timely intervention. Vinmec International General Hospital is a high-quality medical care address that you can completely trust, the hospital has a team of experienced and qualified doctors who will directly participate in the examination and treatment process. advise on the best course of treatment for the client.