Mayo Clinic Phasing out Ambien after Slip and Fall Study
November 20th, 2012. By AbiK
The Mayo Clinic has decided to phase out use of Ambien, the prescription sleeping pill, over concerns that patients on the drug have a higher rate fall rate than those who are not on it.
In a study conducted by the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN and published in the Journal of Hospital Medicine (11/19/12), researchers reviewed fall data from more than 16,000 patients who were hospitalized. The study found that patients who were given Ambien while hospitalized experienced falls more than four times greater than those who were not given Ambien. According to the study, the fall rate for patients given Ambien was just over 3 percent compared to a fall rate of 0.7 percent for patients not given Ambien.
What’s interesting about the Mayo Clinic Ambien study as well is that the fall rate associated with the drug was greater than that associated with factors such as age, mental impairment, insomnia or delirium. And, that held true no matter what the Ambien dosage was.
According to a report at HealthDay News, the Mayo Clinic’s chief patient safety officer, Dr. Timothy Morgenthaler stated via news release, “As a result of our study, we are now phasing out [Ambien] and moving toward sleep enhancement techniques that are not based on drugs and which we believe are safer and probably as effective.”
While the Mayo Clinic is clearly backing off of Ambien as a sleep aid for in-patient care, the study did not find a cause and effect relationship between taking Ambien and falling; however, the association found between the two in the study was enough for the Mayo Clinic to begin to phase the drug out of use.
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My mother was taking Ambien when she fell and boke her hip. We started giving her Ambien much less (four times a month instead of four times a week) and she has not fallen since. Also, unless she sleeps until she awakens, which can be as long as 12 hours, her eyes are blood-shot and dilated when she wakes up.
Ya, I ended up sleep driving and they put me in jail facing a 1 to 5 year prison sentence. My mother was also taking it when she was 87. She fell in the bathroom one morning and broke her femur. Whoever produces this product or allows their patients to take it should be prosecuted to the highest degree. Please sign the post at ambienoutrage.com. My doctor gave me the option to take one or two 12.5 mg. CR at bedtime. I took two one evening because of an extremely stessful day, which would have been 25mg and woke up sleepwalking and then driving. Fortunatly no accidents happened and no one was injured.. Thanks for reading and please do not make this mistake like I did. Doc had been prescribing this to me for 5 years. I did not realize this product is only very short term. Don’t trust anyone–ever! Roger
I hope you are not the pharmacutical company that produces Ambien. ………….
I to got arrested for sleep driving, ambien is a MUG! and their should be a class action suit against this company. When they first came on the market they didn't even say the side effects, but now they do.
I took Ambien about 4 years ago. I was on it for quiet awhile and honestly what you all are saying is true. I also was fighting back problems and a lot of muscle spasms almost to seizure form. I associates it to my back but after getting off of ambien my spasms have let up but I still had balance issues sometimes to the point I slid down onto the ground this year in Feb. I did not fall I just slid in mud and dislocated my foot and broke my ankle in 3 places, I have just been released from the doctor but wonder if their could be some kind of association with it and yes like some other I too had memory problems at that time.
Thanks to Ambien, I am the proud owner of a 1989 Cadillac. According to my wife, after taking my dose one night, I got up, visited Ebay and bid thousands on the car. I woke up, not remembering any of it. When I got to work, I received the Ebay "You have won the auction" email. Up to that point we had thought my midnight walk among the attic rafters was simply an apparition. I, too, had to give up the great nights of sleep out of fear I'd REALLY do something silly or dangerous.
I take ambien because of sleep problems, and have had none of these side efftects. Its has served me well
same here. Maybe these people should lay off the Gin and juice before bedtime and Ambien.
Me too. Tried for 6 months to do without, spent every nite sleepless. Had to sleep during day, disrupting whole life. Back on Ambien: never a single side effect. None. No falls–why would i fall? If it made me dizzy i wouldn’t be taking it! No sleep driving, no bizarre actions. No side effects at all. Even the Mayo Clinic study shows no cause & effect between Ambien and falling among their 3% of already-hospitalized patients. I think the hysteria around it and doctors refusing to provide it are people who don’t suffer from insomnia, and while we suffer from no sleep, they’re tucked up in bed. I think it’s all about not wanting to get sued by someone who claims a false cause and effect between Ambien and later injury.
My neice a surgical nursing student died last year after she took ambien. She was to go in for a repair of a high hernia operation and took the the ambien fell asleep food came back up during sleep and died..She couldn't wakeup..She had a ten year old son who is now being raised by his grandfather. Becareful this ambien I also took and stumbled, slurred words, could hardly wakeup you don't have complete control of your body. My recommendation would be don't take it and start walking and working out. Drop the junk food and eat well…
I have been on Ambien for awhile,now since almost 9 months and I have been having bad side effects like some memory-loss,sleepwalking,binge-eating especially at night,when I get-up in the mornings I feel like I'm under heavy-sedation and it takes me awhile to try and get around..I've fell quite a few times from it but, thank God I didn't get hurt from it….And, I know nothing because of being on the drug until the next day from memory-loss….This drug needs to be off the market for causing people alot of problems and heartache as well as causing slip & falls and possibly deaths….Amanda
I woke up one morning looked in the mirror and was shocked, I had cut my long hair off and had no memory of it, I also would sleep walk, sleep eat a lot ! and have conversations while doing so.
I took Ambien ONCE for severe insomnia. I awoke to use the restroom and fell ….. breaking my hip and fracturing my foot in four places. While hospitalized I was told that Ambien should never have been prescribed because I am over sixty five and suffer from COPD. When I called the prescribing doc, he said he thought I'd be fine with it as I didn't drink. Needless to say he is no longer my doc even though he apologized for his mistake. My hip has healed nicely but I suffer chronic pain in my foot which has healed deformed. I would love to sue this creep but the statutes of limitations have run out after two and a half years. I'm left with a noticeable limp and never ending pain. Check out this med before it's use !!!!!!!!
My wife took ambien for over seven years and had zero problems. Over six months ago her doctor reduced her dosage down to 5 mg. Last week she took her 5 mg dose at 10 pm. Got up the next morning and went to an afternoon appointment. Sometime after 2 pm while driving home she hit three other cars with zero awareness and kept going. She has no memory of what happened for over 20 minutes and her next memory is when the police were knocking on her window. She was arrested for DUI and spent 5 hours in the slammer. Her black out started over 16 hours after taking 5 mg of ambien. I have looked at the label and they never mention effects 16 hours after the fact.
By 16 hrs the drug should be entirely gone from the body. An arrest for DUI is not made without negative results on sobriety tests made on the spot. If your wife was arrested for a DUI it’s not likely because she was just still a bit sleepy from Ambien.
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I have taken Ambien for 7 years. Over the last year I’ve noticed it seems harder to clear my head and “wake up”. So I started breaking them in half. Within 2 days I experienced extreme fatigue, nausea and anxiety. Now I’m trying to break off about 20 percent. The symptoms are milder but still there. I’m waiting for them to go away so I can take less. It’s been nearly 3 weeks.
I have taken an ambien every night for years with no balance problems whatsoever. I am 70 years old. I do not believe the results of this study. It’s just one more reason to give the insurance carriers an excuse for denying to cover prescriptions of this medication.