Posted by
Kilroy on Thursday, March 15, 2007 8:46:37 AM
HEALTH NEWS:
CAPE COD – Disturbing results from a
Kennedy Krisdodd Institute study has prompted the FDA to issue a warning about the link between prescription sleeping pills and a phenomenon that’s been come to be known as “Sleep-Driving”. The highly publicized results and warning coming a year after the disorder first made headlines when Rep. Patrick Kennedy crashed his car after allegedly taking Ambien. Kennedy is scheduled to be sentenced for the incident later this week.
Mickey Shameless, famed criminal defense attorney and spokesman for The Kennedy Krisdodd Institute, at a ceremony marking the one year anniversary of the Institute's founding, discussed the dangers of the disorder “
It's a more complicated version of sleepwalking, but behind the wheel--getting up in the middle of the night and going for a drive — with no memory of doing so. I repeat, no memory. Absolutely none. Zero. Nope, can’t remember it, not a thing”.
The name “Sleep-Driving” is actually a misnomer that came about because of the incident involving Rep. Kennedy, the only participant who was willing to be publicly identified with the study. Other participants, who wish to remain anonymous, report the problem manifesting itself in other ways, including those in the following (non-exhaustive) list:
“Sleep-Bootlegging”
“Sleep-Swimming from the Scene of an Accident”
“Sleep-PT Boat Commanding”
“Sleep-Statutorily Raping Babysitter”
“Sleep-Date Raping With and Without ‘Roofies’”
“Sleep-Skiing”
“Sleep-Piloting”
“Sleep-Beating Teenage Girl to Death with Golf Club”
“Sleep-Impaling Dead Teenage Girl with Shaft of Broken Golf Club”
“Sleep-Poisoning Marilyn Monroe”
“Sleep-Wiretapping Martin Luther King”
“Sleep-Waitress Sandwich Making with other U.S. Senator”
The Food and Drug Administration wouldn't say exactly how many other cases it knows of, but said the agency uncovered more than a dozen reports — and is worried that hundreds, and perhaps thousands, more are going uncounted.
