A psychologist yesterday called attention to the excessive consumption of sleeping pills in the nation, saying that the drugs are no panacea for insomnia as a sleep disorder may be symptomatic of other mental or physical health problems.
Taiwanese consumed 327 million sleeping pills last year, up from 324 million in 2011 and 304 million in 2010, with the top three most prescribed drugs being zolpidem, estazolam and bromazepam, said Tsai Wen-ing (蔡文瑛), director of the Food and Drug Administration’s controlled drugs division.
“Assuming each pill measures about 1mm, the total number of pills that Taiwanese took last year would be nearly as long as the 372.8km National Sun Yat-sen Freeway [Freeway No. 1],” Tsai told a press conference in Taipei yesterday morning.
Photo: Hsieh Wen-hua, Taipei Times
Mao Wei-chung (毛衛中), an attending physician at Tri-Service General Hospital’s psychiatry department, said that about 215, or 65.3 percent, of the 384 people who visited the hospital to seek help for insomnia said they had difficulty sleeping because of pressure.
“Among them, 41.7 percent said interpersonal conflicts were their primary source of pressure, while 15.5 percent attributed it to work-related stress and 4.5 percent to financial burdens,” Mao said.
Nearly half of the patients had turned to alcohol and over-the-counter drugs such as antihistamines to help them sleep, or drinking coffee and taking afternoon naps to help them get through the following day, before seeking professional medical assistance and starting to take anti-insomnia drugs.
“However, as insomnia can coexist with many other chronic physical and psychological conditions, taking sleeping pills will only treat the symptoms rather than the root of the problem,” Mao said.
Citing examples, Mao said a 20-year-old college student, surnamed Wang (王), who often stayed up late playing online games and did not go to sleep until 3am recently sought help at a local clinic after having difficulty getting up early and falling asleep earlier than usual.
“Wang said he had attempted to go to bed at an earlier hour as he had to attend summer morning classes in the past month. After he had trouble doing so, he asked a doctor at the clinic to prescribe sleeping pills to help him sleep,” Mao said.
However, the drugs failed to do the trick, so Wang sought further assistance, becoming Mao’s patient.
Mao said the root cause of Wang’s sleeping difficulty was delayed sleep-phase disorder.
The disorder cannot be fixed by sleeping pills, Mao said, adding that the most effective treatment was “bright-light therapy,” which requires a minimum of 20 minutes’ exposure to morning sunlight each day.
“Although sleeping pills should be considered a last resort for people with sleep problems, they are certainly not dread monsters,” Mao said.
“What we should do is distinguish between people who really need the drugs medically from those who do not, and help them determine and address the real cause of their sleeplessness,” Mao said.
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