Sleeping pills have been the answer to insomnia for a few years now in America, but now, the American College of Physicians presents astounding results in a study.
The research, made by a team of doctors at the organization said that people should try counseling and regular therapy before turning to sleeping pills. The study aims to provide new guidelines to understand insomnia and to make better treatments for people suffering sleeping. The study from the ACP was published on Monday.
According to the study, cognitive behavioral therapy is effective and it has a long-lasting effect in fighting chronic insomnia. It’s worth mentioning the study was reviewed by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.The research was based on the data provided by other researchers in the last 10 years. This was in order to evaluate if the effects of the cognitive behavioural therapy and other counseling-type intervention had an effect in sleeping habits. It had, and a positive one.
Therapy is better in several ways in comparison with sleeping pills
The president of the American College of Physicians, Wayne Riley, stated that using cognitive behavioral therapy as the first treatment, instead of using medication. In addition, medication effectiveness can also decrease costs to the health care system. Over-medication tends to generate significant costs to the system since the health care facilities need to provide the drugs to patients as soon as the prescription is given by the physician.
From 100 patients, 1 out of 6 in the US has clinical disorders related to sleeping problems. Insomnia is a common affection, especially among women and elders. So, being able to treat this problem in a more efficient way will help that 10 percent of the population.
The problem with pills
Often, pills’ prescriptions for insomnia carry side-effects that can go from severe headaches to death, and the regular ingestion of medication can be dangerous in general. Ambien and Restoril, popular sleeping pills, make people ingesting them more vulnerable to have accidents because of lack of concentration.
The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) has stated that certain type of drugs remain in the bloodstream long enough to make consumers dizzy or confused in regular activities, such as driving. Also, pills don’t work that well. Or at least there is not enough evidence to support that certain drugs help people with insomnia. What it is proven is that medication for insomnia only works as long as you keep the ingestion of the drugs, while therapy usually tends to solve the problem for good. So, next time you are having critical sleeping problems, try going to therapy instead to the pharmacy.
Source: NBC News