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Arch Intern Med. 1999;159:2393-2395.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

FOR PATIENTS for whom the potential short-term benefits of insomnia relief by benzodiazepine therapy are offset by their specific vulnerability to both acute and long-term adverse effects or dependency, the study by Garfinkel and colleagues¹ using melatonin therapy for discontinuation offers a hopeful adjunct in the weaning process and a sleep-maintenance alternative to benzodiazepine therapy. Alternatives such as melatonin therapy can be also helpful in maintaining a therapeutic alliance by offering a treatment enabling focus instead of a do-or-die crisislike atmosphere that can surround the encounter between a concerned clinician and a vulnerable, anxious patient seeking or already dependent on benzodiazepines. Thus, for clinicians who treat patients who are benzodiazepine-dependent and suffer from insomnia, an informed consent process that offers melatonin therapy as an alternative to benzodiazepine dependence integrates good clinical care with effective risk management by carefully navigating between the Scylla of addiction and the Charybdis of abandonment.

TO SLEEP PERCHANCE TO DREAM TO REMEMBER PERCHANCE TO BE SLEEPLESS

Sleep . . . [Full Text of this Article]

WHY NOT LET SLEEPING DOGS LIE?

SLEEP, MEMORY, AND AUTONOMY

RELATED ARTICLE

Facilitation of Benzodiazepine Discontinuation by Melatonin: A New Clinical Approach
Doron Garfinkel, Nava Zisapel, Julio Wainstein, and Moshe Laudon
Arch Intern Med. 1999;159(20):2456-2460.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT