Belsomra - suvorexant

Morpheus · Post by **Morpheus** » Tue Feb 03, 2015 8:21 am

Merck has just released a new sleep medication nationally to be available through prescription. It has "not been tested on patients with severe apnea."

If anyone has experience with this new drug, please share your impressions.

49er · Post by **49er** » Tue Feb 03, 2015 8:27 am

Morpheus wrote:Merck has just released a new sleep medication nationally to be available through prescription. It has "not been tested on patients with severe apnea."

If anyone has experience with this new drug, please share your impressions.

Hi Morpheus,

The few folks who have reported on this on the insomnia forum of http://www.needsleep.net said it was not effective. But obviously that doesn't prove anything as it will take time before there is a true sense of this drug's effectiveness.

49er

Morpheus · Post by **Morpheus** » Tue Feb 03, 2015 8:49 am

I agree it will be a while before consensus emerges on this drug.

Interesting article in the New Yorker outlined how real efficacy is achieved at 20mg, but in order to get FDA approval, they had to recommend that people start with 10mg.

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/ ... ig-sleep-2

Jay Aitchsee · Post by **Jay Aitchsee** » Tue Feb 03, 2015 10:34 am

Here's Merck's Free Trial Offer.
Even though it's been approved for some months, I think Merck has just began to market the drug in the last couple of days. My Sleep Doctor hadn't received any samples as of the middle of last month.

ChicagoGranny · Post by **ChicagoGranny** » Tue Feb 03, 2015 11:00 am

FDA release:

The testing showed impaired driving performance in both male and female participants when the 20 mg strength was taken. Patients using the 20 mg strength should be cautioned against next-day driving or activities requiring full mental alertness.

there is a risk from Belsomra of sleep-driving and other complex behaviors while not being fully awake, such as preparing and eating food, making phone calls, or having sex.

http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/ ... 409950.htm

ChicagoGranny · Post by **ChicagoGranny** » Tue Feb 03, 2015 11:05 am

Morpheus wrote:.

In dealing with insomnia do you,

- Practice good sleep hygiene (Google it and read several sources)
- Eat a good diet
- Have a regular, moderate exercise program
- Try to avoid daytime naps
- Practice total abstinence of caffeine including sources like chocolate (sigh)
- Review all medicines, vitamins and supplements you are taking to make sure none are interfering with sleep
- Use the bedroom for sleeping (and sex) only, and make sure the bedroom and bed are comfortable.
- Learn to appropriately handle emotional stress in your life
- Do not listen to your breathing or the sound of the machine as you are falling asleep.
- Distract your mind by thinking of a pleasant, relaxing activity that you enjoy. Thinking of sitting under an umbrella on a quiet beach with a warm gentle breeze works for me.
- Use CPAP software, such as the free SleepyHead, to make sure your therapy is optimized
- If you still don't feel or sleep well, make sure you have regular medical checkups to confirm there are no other medical problems

CG

All of these should be done before resorting to drugs.

Jay Aitchsee · Post by **Jay Aitchsee** » Tue Feb 03, 2015 12:20 pm

ChicagoGranny wrote:
In dealing with insomnia do you,

- Practice good sleep hygiene (Google it and read several sources
- Eat a good diet
- Have a regular, moderate exercise program
- Practice total abstinence of caffeine including sources like chocolate
- Review all medicines, vitamins and supplements you are taking to make sure none are interfering with sleep
- Optimize emotional stress in your life
- Use CPAP software to make sure your therapy is optimized?

All of these should be done before resorting to drugs.

Agree, 100%. Though it seems hard to convince some people who come to the forum looking for advice.

ChicagoGranny · Post by **ChicagoGranny** » Tue Feb 03, 2015 12:36 pm

Jay Aitchsee wrote:Though it seems hard to convince some people who come to the forum looking for advice.

Do you think it's our "instant" culture Jay? We want everything without working for it. We want the doctor to "give us a pill that will make it go away".

(Not saying that about you, Morpheus, as I have no idea.)

Pugsy · Post by **Pugsy** » Tue Feb 03, 2015 12:46 pm

ChicagoGranny wrote:Do you think it's our "instant" culture Jay? We want everything without working for it. We want the doctor to "give us a pill that will make it go away".

I am not Jay but this is something I noticed 20 to 30 years ago.
I think that we have an "instant" culture and expect medicine in general to always fix things perfectly. Docs should always know EXACTLY what is going on and there should be some sort of immediate fix for whatever ails a person be it a pill or something else.
We expect "easy" and are mad when "easy" won't work or give us the desired results we want.
Just like it is when people say "cpap isn't working because I don't feel any better" when they have a problem that cpap can't even fix but they sure expect cpap to fix everything they think is wrong with them.
Medicine and health is far from an exact science...yet people expect it to be always exact and it just will never be what some people expect.
Way too many variables going on to ever make it exact no matter how much we want it to be.

Morpheus · Post by **Morpheus** » Tue Feb 03, 2015 1:53 pm

I assume that anyone who uses sleep medication should first try everything else, and then, if circumstances warrant, only use it briefly and for as short a time as possible. It's excellent that ChicagoGranny posted the rules of the road as a reminder.

Daytime sleepiness is a common side-effect of most soporifics, but so is extreme sleep deprivation. I am grateful that there are pharmaceutical assists for when they are absolutely needed to carry on for the requirements of your day.

But I must say, with all due respect, anyone who thinks insomniacs are not working hard enough "to get over it" hasn't read the literature nor been one of the 20 percent of folks who have intractable cases of it.

Jay Aitchsee · Post by **Jay Aitchsee** » Tue Feb 03, 2015 2:59 pm

Morpheus wrote:But I must say, with all due respect, anyone who thinks insomniacs are not working hard enough "to get over it" hasn't read the literature nor been one of the 20 percent of folks who have intractable cases of it.

No, my comments weren't aimed at the "20%", and I don't think CG's were either. Mine were aimed at those who ignore or refuse to accept the rules of good sleep hygiene when trying to overcome non-restorative sleep. Most, it seems to me, because they "know" that can't be the problem or don't want to invest in the effort to find out.

In the meantime, this new drug is interesting, and could shed some light on why some people can't obtain restorative sleep even with good sleep hygiene and optimal therapy.

Belsomra - suvorexant

Belsomra - suvorexant

Re: Belsomra - suvorexant

Re: Belsomra - suvorexant

Re: Belsomra - suvorexant

Re: Belsomra - suvorexant

Re: Belsomra - suvorexant

Re: Belsomra - suvorexant

Re: Belsomra - suvorexant

Re: Belsomra - suvorexant

Re: Belsomra - suvorexant

Re: Belsomra - suvorexant