As Kennedy said, he doesn't even remember getting up in the middle of the night. That's not unusual for people who take one specific sleep aide. 7Healthcast Reporter Dr. Deanna Lites has more.
The two prescription medications Patrick Kennedy says he took are Phenergan and Ambien. Phenergan can be taken for allergies, to aid in sleep, to help control pain and to treat nausea and vomiting. Ambien is a sleep medication and has come under scrutiny recently with patients describing bizarre behavior. Sleep expert Dr. Carlos Schenk says he has 32 cases of people with no previous history of sleepwalking. All began sleep walking while under the influence of Ambien.
"Ambien does increase slow wave sleep and that is linked to sleepwalking," Dr. Schenck said.
But that's not all. Some patients began eating with the sleepwalking and even driving while taking Ambien.
Six years ago 59-year-old Judie Evans started taking Ambien and her son caught her turning on the stove and taking food from the refrigerator in her sleep.
"I had the burners on and I could have started the fire and put so many people at risk," Evans said.
And strangest of all, "I don't remember a thing," Evans said.
"It is important to emphasize that although sleepwalking my occur during treatment with Ambien, it may not necessarily be caused by it. It is difficult to determine with certainty whether a particular instance of sleepwalking is drug induced, spontaneous in origin or a result of an underlying disorder," Ambien's manufacturer said in a statement.
Last year doctors wrote more than 26-million prescriptions for Ambien, making it the most used sleeping pill.
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