Restless Leg Syndrome Drug Gets New Indication

FDA approves gabapentin enacarbil after a twelve week trial.

The FDA has approved the restless legs syndrome drug gabapentin enacarbil (Horizant) to treat postherpetic neuralgia.

The drug is administered in one 600 mg dose for the first 3 days of treatment, followed by 600 mg doses twice daily on day four and onward, a statement from makers GlaxoSmithKline and XenoPort said.

Patients with renal impairment should have adjusted doses, the statement added.

Safety and efficacy for the new indication were evaluated in a 12-week ...

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15
MAR
0

Restless Legs Syndrome

Feeling Lackadaisical? Sleep Apnea May Be to Blame

Millions don’t know they have the airway disorder, experts say.

Millions of Americans plod through each day exhausted. Not because they’re working too hard, over-exercising or not taking enough vitamins.

The real reason, experts say, is because they unknowingly have a sleep disorder.

As many as 18 million Americans have obstructive sleep apnea, according to the National Sleep Foundation. But researchers estimate that as many as 90 percent of them don’t know they have it.

Sleep apnea causes people’s airways to become blocked while ...

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1
MAR
0

Sleep Apnea

Sleep Apnea Hurts Kids’ Brain Function

Treatment for kids’ sleep apnea shown to improve attention span.

Obstructive sleep apnea in children produces chemical changes in brain areas associated with learning, memory, and executive function, a researcher said here.

Luckily, treatment for the sleep apnea appears to reverse many of those brain changes, Ann Halbower, MD, of Children’s Hospital Sleep Center in Denver, said here at the annual meeting of the American Thoracic Society.

A small study found that the normalization of the brain chemistry resulting from treatment was associated ...

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15
FEB
0

Sleep Apnea

Too Little Sleep Makes Jack a Dull Surgeon

More than one quarter of surgeons reported being “impaired” as a result of being tired.

Despite new limits on resident work hours almost half of the orthopedic residents at two of Harvard’s hospitals said they were fatigued during work hours, and 27 percent said they were impaired by lack of sleep.

Moreover, the doctors-in-training said they average just a little over 5 hours’ sleep daily during work weeks, Frank McCormick, MD, of Massachusetts General Hospital, and colleagues reported in the May 21 ...

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1
FEB
0

Sleepless Dangers

Poor Sleep Among Preschoolers May Be Tied to Special Ed Needs Later

But, study doesn’t prove a cause-and-effect link.

Researchers found that kids who suffered from problems like sleep apnea and snoring in their infant, toddler and preschool years were more likely to need special education services for conditions such as speech and behavioral problems a few years later.

Although the study found an association between the two factors, it did not prove cause and effect. The higher risk of disabilities could be a statistical fluke, or something else besides sleep problems may explain ...

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15
JAN
0

Sleepless Dangers

Sleep Apnea Linked to Higher Cancer Death Risk

Cancer compensates, spreads in search for oxygen, researcher suggests.

Sleep apnea has already been linked to a host of adverse health problems, such as high blood pressure and heart disease. Now, new research suggests that in people who already have cancer, the sleep disorder may raise their risk of dying from cancer.

People with the most severe sleep apnea — those who have 30 or more episodes of low or no oxygen in an hour of sleep — had almost five times ...

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15
JAN
0

Sleep Apnea

Caution: Too Much Sleep Could Make You ‘Drunk’

If you’re getting too much sleep, you could be at risk for a condition called sleep drunkenness.

With our action-packed lives, nearly a third of Americans struggle with getting too little sleep. But there’s evidence suggesting that too much sleep may actually be just as problematic as too little sleep!

So how much is too much sleep?

Medical experts typically recommend seven to nine hours of shut-eye per night for adults, and even more for kids and teens. (Yikes, no wonder first period ...

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1
JAN
0

Sleepless Dangers

Sleepwalking in Adults More Common Than Thought

Large study found nearly 4 percent wander at night, often tied to mental woes.

Sleepwalkers on TV and in movies are often played for drama or laughs, but the phenomenon is surprisingly common in American households, a large, new study suggests.

In what they said is the first research in three decades on sleepwalking prevalence in the United States, scientists from Stanford University School of Medicine found that about 3.6 percent of U.S. adults are prone to sleepwalking, a higher proportion than ...

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15
DEC
0

World of Dreams

Many U.S. Workers Sleep-Deprived

Transportation workers among those getting the least shuteye, researchers say.

Many American workers get fewer than six hours of sleep each night, putting themselves and their co-workers at risk for serious and sometimes deadly consequences, federal health officials said Thursday.

“There about 41 million workers who aren’t getting the recommended amount of sleep,” said Dr. Sara Luckhaupt, lead author of a new study from the division of surveillance, hazard evaluations and field studies at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. ...

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1
DEC
0

Sleepless Dangers

Sleep Apnea Treatment May Help Ward Off Heart Failure

Nighttime breathing disorder might alter heart’s function, but CPAP mask therapy seems to help.

A nightly breathing treatment may not only help people with obstructive sleep apnea sleep better, it might also lower their risk of heart failure, a new study finds.

Obstructive sleep apnea occurs when breathing is interrupted throughout nighttime sleep. With the new study, a team of British researchers believe their findings could have a significant impact on the estimated 18 million Americans with some form of the condition.

“Sleep ...

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15
NOV
0

Sleep Apnea

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