Brief Answer:
Muscle pain is rare but possible

Detailed Answer:
Good morning. My name is Dr. Saghafi and I'm a neurologist from XXXXXXX Ohio, USA. Your question is about possible side effects of Ambien having to do with low back and neck pain.

In all the years I've prescribed this medications since it was first approved in 1992 no patient that I recall has ever made that specific complaint about the drug related to neck and back pains. However, I did some research and found the following directly from the manufacturer's prescription monograph and testing results:

Musculoskeletal system:

Frequent: arthralgia, myalgia.
Infrequent: arthritis.
Rare: arthrosis, muscle weakness, sciatica, tendinitis.

The definition that the company gives for the term FREQUENT is any symptom seen in greater than 1% of patients using the drug

The definition that the company gives for the term INFREQUENT is any symptom seen in between 0.1-1% of patients using the drug.

The definition that the company gives for the term RARE is any symptom seen in less than 0.01% of patients using the drug

So if we were to try and fit your symptom of neck pain into this picture we could call that a muscle type of pain or myalgia then, approximately 1% or perhaps a little greater experience that symptom. If we look at low back pain then, I guess it sort of depends whether you want to call that again, just a MUSCLE PAIN or ache across the low back muscle region or do you have shooting pains like a sciatica down the buttock and into the legs? If it's the former then, you are still in that 1% or greater group of patients. If your symptoms in the low back are more like sciatica then, you are in the group who experience this symptom RARELY which is LESS than 0.01% of patients who use the drug.

In terms of "what does it mean?" unfortunately, there are no explanations by the company and no studies I was able to locate in PUBMED addressing that particular side effect. All we can say is that it's a reaction your body has to the medication and that's it. Knowing how the medication works and what the chemistry is I have no good explanation as to why it should cause your muscles to ache or be painful. Perhaps, it causes some type of muscle fatigue and that's the cause of the pain? Or maybe it's a direct reaction of the muscle itself in that region of the body to that substance. Why it should be so specific to the neck or back is again another question that is difficult to answer and there is no available data or study to explain that so we simply would have to accept it as a side effect in your particular case.

Remember, side effects are not experienced by all users just by a small percentage and most of the time we really don't have a good idea of why that happens.

I hope that satisfactorily answers your question.

If you found information in this response helpful please provide some brief feedback as to the value of the content compared to what you were looking for along with a STAR RATING which I would be greatly appreciative of seeing and reading.

Also, if there are no further comments or questions over what I've written could you also CLOSE THE QUERY on your end which will signal the system that the question has been satisfactorily responded to and can be processed, archived, and credited for future use and reference as necessary by other physicians.

I also invite you to write any questions in the future you may have to me by writing to: bit.ly/drdariushsaghafi

This query required 31 min. of physician specific time to review, research, and respond with envoy to patient.

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Brief Answer:
Studies are all ASSOCIATION studies not CAUSE/EFFECT

Detailed Answer:
The studies that have all looked at the risk of all cause death from taking sleeping pills (no matter which ones) have concluded that taking these medications do lead to earlier morbidity and mortality. However, nobody has ever been able to prove cause and effect to my knowledge and I wouldn't "LOSE A WHOLE LOT OF SLEEP" over it...no pun intended. As far as your being dependent upon this medication you should discuss with your doctor how to come off of these (which in my opinion should never ever be taken chronically).

I personally stopped prescribing sleep medications well before any of these reports came out related to increased deaths and cancers. You should find a doctor who is expert and willing to look for and treat the underlying cause or causes of your insomnia. This is by far the preferable route to go as opposed to simply taking pills to "make things all better" and ignore the actual problem.

To put it in perspective- when Ambien was first released in 1992 manufacturer's instructions were that the drug was not to be used more than 30 days consecutively and even then, it was to be preferably used for only 7-10 days, in other words for as short a period of time as possible or until the patient resolved whatever the acute problem was for their inability to sleep. In other words, back when the drug first came out there was an incentive and motivation on the part of doctors to look for the cause of insomnia, not just treat the symptom. They knew that greater than 30 days would be a risk to keep their patients on because of the labeling. Well, once people got "hooked" on these medications and couldn't be pulled off doctors were faced with a dilemma. Stop their patients by force after 30 days or risk a complication of the medication in a patient who had been taking it for more than 30 days which would be a clear violation of the labeling instructions.

So the pharmaceutical companies addressed this issue by doing studies and then, going to the FDA to prove that patients COULD STAY on them for longer than 30 days. the FDA approved their studies, patients were happy since you didn't have to cut them from what actually turns out to be an addictive drug, doctors were happy since they never had to address the issue again with their patients...they would just keep renewing the script and not be at any risk for violating labeling instructions, and of course, the makers of the drug were VERY happy as this translated into HUGE REVENUE streams since now patients could be placed on the drug indefinitely.

If you found information in this response helpful please provide some brief feedback as to the value of the content compared to what you were looking for along with a STAR RATING which I would greatly appreciate.

Also, if there are no further comments or questions over what I've written could you also CLOSE THE QUERY on your end which will signal the system that the question has been satisfactorily responded to and can be processed, archived, and credited for future use and reference as necessary by other physicians.

I also invite you to write any questions in the future you may have to me at:

bit.ly/drdariushsaghafi

This query required 55 min. of physician specific time to review, research, and respond with envoy to patient.

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