European Journal of Pharmacology 2008-11-12

Rebound insomnia induced by abrupt withdrawal of hypnotics in sleep-disturbed rats.

Masahiro Hirase, Takayuki Ishida, Chiaki Kamei

Index: Eur. J. Pharmacol. 597(1-3) , 46-50, (2008)

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Abstract

The present study was performed to examine whether or not rebound insomnia is caused by an abrupt withdrawal of benzodiazepine hypnotics and tandospirone in rats. Etizolam and triazolam caused a significant shortening of sleep latency, increase in non-REM sleep time, and decrease in wake time in a dose-dependent manner. Etizolam and triazolam caused a significant shortening of sleep latency during drug administration (for 7 days), whereas a significant prolongation of sleep latency was observed by the abrupt withdrawal of these drugs. Tandospirone caused a shortening of sleep latency, whereas no effect was observed on non-REM sleep time and wake time during drug administration (for 7 days). On the other hand, tandospirone showed no significant effect on sleep latency through its abrupt withdrawal, differing from etizolam and triazolam. From these findings, a rebound phenomenon in terms of sleep latency was confirmed with etizolam and triazolam in rats. Furthermore, the 5-HT(1A) agonist, tandospirone, caused no rebound phenomenon regarding sleep latency in rats.