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THE MIND/MOOD PILL BOOK
Robert E. Hales, M.D., and
Dianne R. Hales
New York: Bantam Dell Publishing Group, 2000
Paperback, 384 pages, $19.95
ISBN: 0-553-38004-4
Reviewed by Lynne Lamberg
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An estimated 40 million Americans of all ages have trouble falling asleep or staying asleep most nights or every night. Another 20 to 30 million report occasional sleep difficulties. Some seek relief from prescription or nonprescription sleep aids, including melatonin.
The ideal sleeping pill would help you sleep soundly but not make you wobbly if you had to get up in the night, and it would not still make you drowsy the next morning. Indeed, it would leave you more alert the next day than if you hadn't taken it. It also would not interact with other drugs you use or interfere with their action. It would be safe, non-addicting, and continue to work over the long haul.
Though many helpful sleep medications are now available, the ideal sleeping pill does not yet exist. If you use medications for sleep, it's wise to bone up on the risks as well as benefits. This book makes that task much easier.
Robert Hales, MD, a psychiatrist, and Dianne Hales, a medical journalist, provide an easy-to-use guide to medications for sleep and other disorders that affect mind and mood. These include depression and anxiety, implicated in about one in three cases of insomnia.
The authors raise issues you'll want to discuss with your doctor. If you mainly have trouble falling asleep, for example, a short-acting medication may be just right for you. If you are bothered by waking too early, however, you may need a drug that stays in your body longer. In the latter instance, you'll need to be cautious the next day about driving and attentive to difficulties with concentration or memory. When using some sleep medications, older people need to remember to get out of bed slowly, so that they don't become dizzy when they stand up.
Each section of this well-organized book includes dosing information, common side effects, precautions, and warnings. One particularly nice feature is that the authors compare drugs designed for a similar purpose, discussing the advantages and disadvantages of each. They also remind readers to consider non-drug tactics. Several recent studies verify their assertion that "Good sleep hygiene is usually the best long-term solution to sleep difficulties."
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