Effects of sedative-hypnotics on sleep quality among patients with insomnia: evidence from an observational, pre-post study in India.

BACKGROUND: Insomnia continues to be neglected globally, despite its high prevalence. Guidelines by the health regulatory agencies call for studies to evaluate the effect of sedative-hypnotics on sleep quality. METHODS: We conducted a pre-post observational study to evaluate sleep quality among 186 inpatients receiving short-term oral sedative-hypnotic therapy in a tertiary care teaching hospital in Kozhikode (Kerala), India. Using Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index_Past-Week (PSQI_PW) questionnaire, patients were interviewed upon hospital admission and at follow up after ≥1-week of sedative-hypnotic therapy. Additionally, we interviewed 36 physicians to understand the current clinical perception about sedative-hypnotics. RESULTS: Mean (SD) age of the study patients was 59 (7.5) years. Majority (63.4%) of the patients were men. Of the various primary diagnoses for hospitalization, cardiovascular disease was the most common (22.6%, n = 49). Sedative-hypnotic therapy improved the mean (SD) PSQI_PW overall score by 6.79 points (pre: 12.70 (3.5) vs. post: 5.91 (2.8); p < 0.0001). Statistically significant improvements in sleep duration, latency, efficacy, and day dysfunction were observed. Higher proportion of study patients were prescribed benzodiazepines (73.7%) compared to zolpidem (26.3%). Patients treated with zolpidem reported higher improvements in mean overall PSQI_PW scores compared to those treated with benzodiazepines, however these differences were not statistically significant upon adjusting for age, gender and primary diagnosis for hospitalization. Qualitative interviews indicate that that physicians consider zolpidem to be safer and more efficacious. CONCLUSIONS: In our study, sedative-hypnotic therapy helped improve sleep quality among the hospitalized patients. More studies evaluating the comparative efficacy and safety of zolpidem vs. benzodiazepines - including among patient groups with varying demographic and clinical characteristics - are needed. India must develop evidence-based treatment guidelines to inform the clinical practice around the use of sedative-hypnotics.

Late onset clozapine induced agranulocytosis.

Agranulocytosis is defined as an absolute neutrophil count less than 100/mm(3) in association with infectious disease. The risk of agranulocytosis is 0.38% of all clozapine treated cases and there is a relatively lesser incidence in Indian population. The risk of clozapine-induced agranulocytosis and neutropenia is highest in the first 6 months and higher in the initial 18 months after the onset of treatment. There have been very few reports of neutropenia and agranulocytosis after this period. There have so far been no reports of late onset clozapine induced agranulocytosis has been reported from India. A case of late onset clozapine induced agranulocytosis with possible mechanism of the same is reported.