Dealing With Lunesta Overdose: Symptoms and Solutions

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已经有超过3100万张处方是为Lunesta，一个受欢迎的失眠药made famous by its advertisements featuring a luminous green moth. Although its makers claim that Lunesta offers nothing more than a refreshing night’s sleep, the drug can have serious side effects – and a Lunesta overdose can be deadly.

Lunesta: A New Kind of Sleep Aid

Lunesta属于一类被称为催眠药的药物，它通过减缓大脑和大脑的活动来引起睡眠central nervous system. Lunesta and other hypnotic sleep aids act on areas of the brain related to mood and memory. These drugs appear to affect the production of a chemical called GABA, which is often low in people with depression, anxiety and other mood disorders.

Lunesta promises up to eight hours of refreshing sleep with every dose, and unlike some other kinds of sleep aids, it’s possible to use it for relatively long periods of time. But as the body adjusts to the drug, its effects diminish – and once it’s stopped, insomnia typically returns, often in a more severe form called rebound insomnia.

Intravenous fluids can help you recover from a Lunesta overdose.

为了从药物中获得想要的效果，使用者可能会服用越来越高的剂量，从不同的医生那里得到多张处方，或者只是在处方量的基础上增加一倍。他们还可以将Lunesta与其他药物或酒精联合使用，以获得更强的效果。这就为可能致命的过量用药创造了条件。

High Doses Trigger Side Effects

Among many other things, the central nervous system regulates the body’s autonomous functions, such as breathing and digestion. Because Lunesta works by depressing the central nervous system and slowing down activity in the brain, taking too much Lunesta can lower those autonomous functions to dangerously low levels – or stop them completely.

Overdose symptoms从相对轻微到致命。服用过多导致的轻度过量症状可能包括过度的晕眩和典型的Lunesta副作用的更强烈版本，如协调能力差、健忘和注意力不集中。

Higher doses can also trigger the more dramatic and potentially dangerous side effects of Lunesta, too. People taking high doses of Lunesta are more likely to experience risky “sleep activity,” when users walk, drive, eat, have sex and do many other things while under the influence of the drug.

Overdoses Can Be Dangerous

In large doses, though, users can become unconscious and unresponsive. Breathing can slow or even stop, robbing the brain of essential oxygen. Too much Lunesta can also lower the heart rate, so that blood pressure drops, and blood fails to circulate properly. Taken in high doses, or incombination with other drugs, this drug can also cause coma, brain damage or death.

Most people who overdose on Lunesta recover from the experience, but it’s essential to get help quickly. That help depends partly on determining whether the victim has used Lunesta alone or in combination with other substances. Overdoses of Lunesta alone can be treated with an antagonist called Flumazenil combined with general supportive care to improve respiration and heart rate. Intravenous fluids might also be helpful.

Finding Overdose Triggers

Lunesta过量服用可能是一个孤立的事故，或者是一个更大问题的症状，尤其是如果其他药物也参与其中的话。这种药物不是麻醉剂，但因为它会很容易上瘾，突然停止服用会导致戒断症状similar to those of typically addictive drugs like alcohol and heroin.

Overdosing on Lunesta can also indicate depression or a similar mood disorder that’s associated with thoughts of suicide – and those kinds of thoughts can be triggered by Lunesta itself, too. It’s important to find and address theunderlying issues导致用药过量以及治疗直接症状。