Case Report, Jul/21:Paradoxical Insomnia in Patient Treated w/Hypnotics 10 yrs.

The full title of this American case report is "Paradoxical Insomnia in a Frustrated Patient Treated With Hypnotics for Ten Years".

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34367831/

Abstract

Insomnia remains a common complaint for which patients present to their primary care providers. The reflex response by most primary care providers to treat insomnia is by prescribing hypnotics. The most commonly prescribed hypnotic is a sedative, such as a benzodiazepine or a benzodiazepine receptor agonist (BRZA). Paradoxical insomnia is a subtype of insomnia described as a complaint of severe insomnia disproportional to the presence of objective sleep disturbance or daytime impairment. Previously known as sleep-state misperception, this subtype of insomnia is not well known among the primary care community. We present a case of a 60-year-old female who had been prescribed multiple hypnotics for over 10 years and presented to our sleep clinic frustrated due to failure of treatment with each medicine. She was eventually diagnosed with paradoxical insomnia after an evaluation of her sleep parameters. This was effectively treated with cognitive-behavioral therapy. This case report aims to raise awareness of this subtype of insomnia in patients at the primary care level and to help minimize the use of hypnotics.

Full Report:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8344385/ 

For what it's worth, after being on termazepam for a while it went paradoxical on me and started obviously revving me up. At that point I was switched to lunesta which brought it's own set of problems.

For what it's worth, after being on termazepam for a while it went paradoxical on me and started obviously revving me up. At that point I was switched to lunesta which brought it's own set of problems.

I think so many of us have experienced this type of thing, Nathan, where a medication was prescribed incorrectly (i.e. too much or too long), and it resulted in other problems, which were then supposed to be solved by another prescription.

"There is no cure for birth and death save to enjoy the interval."

Sincere Best Wishes