Sleeping pill that could turn you into a criminal
SLEEPING pills taken by celebrities including Lindsay Lohan and Tiger Woods – and commonly prescribed in Ireland – could be to blame for numerous cases of dangerous and even criminal behaviour.
The sedative zolpidem, under the brand names Stilnoct and Zoldem, is available from the HSE under the Long Term Illness Scheme as treatment for certain illnesses. Health authorities here also recommend zolpidem for relieving severe insomnia. However it has now been found to be a factor in dozens of instances of people breaking the law while sleeping. They include 43 instances of driving, nine rapes, eight assaults, 10 homicides and burglaries – all of which were claimed to have been carried out while the perpetrator was apparently asleep. In most cases, they had no memory of the event. Figures for privately prescribed Zolpidem in Ireland are not avail
able, but 494,919 prescriptions
‘They go to bed and wake up in the car’
were written for the drug in 2012 through the medical card system. Last week, the Irish Mail on Sunday revealed zolpidem was one of the illegally prescribed drugs most commonly seized by gardaí.
Neurologist Mark Mahowald, of Sleep Forensic Associates, a USbased organisation of doctors who help those who break the law while asleep, says: ‘It appears one part of the brain responsible for complex activities, like driving or cooking, is awake, while another, involved in memory, is not. ‘In sleep-driving for example, people take the drug, go to bed, then wake up in the car with their pyjamas on. When the police pull them over, they do not know how they got there.’
Troubled actress Lohan has admitted to problems while taking zolpidem.