Zolpidem dependence with withdrawal seizures

Abstract

Insomnia is a common medical problem with an inability of the patient to fall asleep or stay asleep at night, resulting in nonrefreshing or nonrestorative sleep. Zolpidem is frequently used in clinical practice for the treatment of insomnia. It is considered a safe drug for the management of insomnia by many physicians as it lacks dependence, amnesia, and has minimal disturbance of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. Seizure is a rare and serious withdrawal symptom of zolpidem. Here, we report a patient on treatment with zolpidem for insomnia developing drug dependence with withdrawal seizures.

Keywords

• dependence
• withdrawal seizure
• zolpidem