Insomnia Medications
Treatment Options Depend on the Severity of the Condition and Your Doctors Evaluation

In essence, insomnia is a medical disorder in which a person cannot fall asleep or stay asleep.  Primary insomnia occurs when no other medical conditions exist to hamper sleep, and secondary insomnia is attributed to secondary medical problems.  There are medications for insomnia that physicians use to treat both types of the disorder.  To determine the proper insomnia medications to be prescribed, a physician will likely perform a full medical examination and order tests to determine if they are dealing with an acute or chronic problem.  Once diagnosed, the physician can write the patient a prescription, usually a medication that can be obtained from a local pharmacy.

Medications may not be required for acute (short-term) insomnia.  Rather than writing the patient a medical prescription, the physician may choose to treat the problems through a change in the patient’s sleep habits or through relaxation therapy.  Although the doctor may choose to prescribe a mild sedative for a short period of time, the use of pharmaceuticals are normally reserved for chronic conditions.  Sedative-hypnotic drugs (Nonbenzodiazepine) include Ambian, Lunesta or Sonata.

To treat chronic sleep disorders, the physician must first determine the medical problems that are contributing to the insomnia.  Initially, the physician will deal with the primary health conditions.  The doctor may also write the patient a prescription for some sort of behavioral study and/or modification.  If sleeplessness continues, the physician may choose to utilize various forms of medications that are available for insomnia.

When long-term problems with insomnia exist, the physician may choose to treat them with a prescription for Benzodiazepine-hypnotic medications, such as ProSom, Halcion, Restoril and Dalmane.  These medical drugs attach to the part of the brain that dampens higher neuronal activity, and will assist in putting the patient to sleep.  Although some drugs used to treat chronic conditions may counteract, with benzodiazepine medications, these are normally used for most severe sleep problems.  There are some severe side effects to using these types of drugs, so they are normally ingested shortly before bedtime.

See Also: Insomnia and Menopause

About The Author:
Kerri Iamele is a successful author and regular contributor to sleep-disorders-help.com.