Bloomberg (4/30, Cortez) reports the Food and Drug Administration will now require a boxed warning on certain prescription sleeping medications, including Ambien (zolpidem), Lunesta (eszopiclone), and Sonata (zaleplon), advising patients about the risk of serious side effects that can lead to death. The article explains that the agency “said it had found 66 examples of patients who took the drugs and engaged in dangerous activities such as sleepwalking or driving while not fully awake, including 20 deaths linked to carbon monoxide poisoning, drowning, fatal falls, hypothermia, car crashes and apparent suicide.”
CNN (4/30, Scutti) reports the boxed warning will notify “patients to possible serious or life-threatening behaviors that may result from taking these drugs.”
Related Links:
— “Sleeping-Pill Deaths Prompt FDA to Add Strict Warning for Drugs, “Michelle Cortez, Bloomberg, April 30, 2019