Intermezzo Side Effects

Serious Adverse Side Effects

Cardiovascular side effects such as chest pain and tachycardia, or abnormal heart-rate
Immunological side effects such as anaphylaxis, a life-threatening allergic reaction
Neurological side effects such as hepatic encephalopathy, a condition where the liver can no longer remove toxic substances from the blood
Psychiatric side effects such as complex mannerisms in behavior, depression, suicidal thoughts
Other side effects such as angioedema, an allergic reaction where there is rapid swelling of the tissues

Common Adverse Side Effect

Gastrointestinal side effects such as diarrhea and nausea
Immunological side effects such as allergy
Neurological side effects such as dizziness, drugged state, headache and drowsiness
Ophthalmic side effects such as visual disturbance
Other side effects such as fatigue

Warnings & Recalls for Intermezzo

Contraindications

The only known contraindication with this drug is hypersensitivity to zolpidem tartrate or any other component of the drug.

Precautions

Patients with these following preexisting conditions or patients currently on Intermezzo | Zolpidem Tartrate must exercise caution whenever these warnings have arisen. These include:

Abrupt withdrawal or rapid dose decrease
Patients who concurrently drink alcohol with this drug
Patients who concurrently use other sedatives or hypnotics
Patients with depression
Patients with diseases that affect metabolism or hemodynamic response
Patients must be careful while driving vehicles or operating machinery after resuming activities
Elderly or debilitated patients
Patients with hepatic impairments
Patients with myasthenia gravis
Patients with renal impairments
Patients with respiratory impairments
Patients who have exhibited activities while asleep
Patients with sleep apnea
Patients with underlying comorbid physical or psychiatric disorders

Pregnancy Warning

Intermezzo | Zolpidem Tartrate has a pregnancy category rating of “C” by the FDA, implying that it should be discontinued after knowledge of conception by the expectant mother.

Intermezzo Treatment and Use

Intermezzo | Zolpidem Tartrate is a prescription medication approved by the FDA on November 23^rd of 2011 indicated for patients who’ve got problems with waking during sleep and who’ve got difficulty falling back to sleep. The correct term for this condition is “early wakening” and is a form of insomnia that disables a person’s sleep patterns thereby affecting day-to-day activities and alertness.

The specific indications for this drug are for:

Insomnia which is characterized by difficulty returning to sleep after middle-of-the-night awakening
Short term treatment for insomnia
Long term treatment for insomnia
Insomnia resulting from selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors

Intermezzo | Zolpidem Tartrate comes as sublingual tablets meant to be taken orally. Zolpidem Tartrate is also known as Ambien CR, which was first approved in the US in 1992 for the short term treatment for insomnia as well as certain brain disorders.

How This Drug Works

Intermezzo | Zolpidem Tartrate is a hypnotic agent that’s unrelated to benzodiazepines or barbiturates. This drug binds the benzodiazepine (BZ) receptor subunit of a complex known as the GABA-A receptor complex that’s thought to be the source that’s responsible for sedative, anticonvulsant, anxiolytic and myorelaxant properties. The preferential binding of Zolpidem to the BZ receptor may explain Intermezzo | Zolpidem Tartrate’s relaxing attributes, enabling a patient to get better sleep.

Dosage Information

The safety and the efficacy of administering Intermezzo | Zolpidem Tartrate to pediatric patients has not been established as of yet. The following is the adult dosage for this drug and is meant to convey a variance between adult male patients and female patients. The difference between the doses for men and women is understood to be because of the slower metabolic clearance of this drug observed in female patients.

The recommended and maximum dose for female patients is 1.75mg, taken once at night
The recommended and maximum dose for male patients is 3.5mg, taken once at night