Effectiveness and safety of hypnotic drugs in the treatment of insomnia in over 70-year old people

Good sleep is an important index of the quality of life in people and above all in old subjects. Among all the symptoms reported to general practitioner, insomnia is at the 3rd place and this is present in particular in the elderly. In elderly people high comorbidity and polytreatment are often present. We have studied 60 elderly people with history of insomnia and concomitant diseases: depression, dementia and behavioral disturbances. All the patients of the present study were visited in our outpatients’ department. Three hypnotic drugs were used for the treatment of insomnia: zolpidem, or triazolam, or oxazepam, respectively at doses of 10 mg/day, 0.125–0.25 mg/day and 15.0 mg/day. All the three drugs showed to be effective and safe; no paradoxical effects were observed.