Subjective hypnotic efficacy of trazodone and zolpidem in DSMIII–R primary insomnia

✍ Scribed by James K. Walsh; Milton Erman; C. W. Erwin; Andrew Jamieson; Mark Mahowald; Quentin Regestein; Martin Scharf; P. Tigel; Gerald Vogel; J. Catesby Ware

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 139 KB
• Volume: 13
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0885-6222
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-1077(199804)13:3<191::aid-hup972>3.0.co;2-x

✦ Synopsis

Trazodone is an antidepressant which is used at low doses as a hypnotic. The hypnotic ecacy of trazodone in nondepressed insomniacs is unknown, especially in comparison to hypnotic medications such as zolpidem. Following a placebo screening week, DSM-IIIR de®ned primary insomniacs were randomized into a parallel-group, doubleblind, 14-day comparison of trazodone 50 mg, zolpidem 10 mg and placebo. Patients completed daily morning questionnaires and weekly oce visits. Self-reported sleep latencies were compared by the Cox proportional hazards regression technique; self-reported sleep duration by ANOVA. During treatment Week 1, both drugs produced signi®cantly shorter self-reported sleep latencies and longer self-reported sleep durations than placebo. Self-reported sleep latency was signi®cantly shorter with zolpidem than with trazodone. During Week 2, only the zolpidem group maintained a signi®cantly shorter sleep latency than the placebo group, and self-reported sleep duration did not vary signi®cantly among groups. The incidence of adverse events was low in all groups. Both trazodone and zolpidem improved self-reported sleep latency and duration of non-depressed, primary insomniacs; zolpidem was somewhat more ecacious at the doses studied.