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American Morning

House Call: Insomnia Drug

Aired October 29, 2003 - 09:43   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: If you can't get a good night's sleep we have some good news for you. There's a new drug that could make all that tossing and turning a thing of the past. Medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta joining us from CNN Center with the details and yet another silver bullet solution. Right, Sanjay?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And I think this story was seemingly designed for morning anchors, Miles. You've got to pay attention for this one.

There's a lot of good sleeping pills out there but most of them have been tested mainly for short-term use. People who occasionally don't get a good night's sleep, that -- maybe that sleeping be good for them. What about the people who are chronic insomniacs?

Insomnia is a really specific term, not just lack of sleep, but poor sleep. People who wake up frequently during the night. Wake up too early in the morning -- probably sounds familiar to you guys there in New York.

About 70 million Americans suffer from some of these symptoms, and therefore sleep is a very big deal to them. And there's a new drug that maybe they should keep an eye on. It's not FDA approved yet but that process could be coming soon. It's called "Estorra" and it's recently -- I should point out that some of the designers of the study actually helped design the drug itself as well.

But some interesting data now coming out about this drug. It seems that actually improves the quality of sleep for longer periods of time, over a longer period of time. Meaning not just one night or two nights at a time, but some of these people in the study took the drug for up to six months at a time and had some significant benefit -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: So what exactly about their sleep improved? Was it the length of sleep? The quality? You know, give us...

(CROSSTALK)

GUPTA: Well, sleep can be measured by a lot of different parameters. And length of sleep, quality of sleep, all of those things important.

But also take a look here. The start of the study, all of those people were sleeping about 300 minutes, that's five hours. After six months the Estorra actually 382 minutes, that's almost an hour and a half extra of sleep compared to a placebo group who were focused on getting more sleep but not taking anything to do it, 345 minutes there.

Even more remarkably for some is that the onset of sleep was twice as quickly in the Estorra group compared to the placebo group. So people actually falling asleep much faster, staying asleep longer. Those two parameters -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Five hours does not seem like enough regardless. Even though there is improvement there.

All right, what about side effects? All these sleeping pills generally have some sort of downside the next morning.

GUPTA: Yes. And again as I said at the beginning, there's a lot of good sleeping pills out there. There are side effects to just about all of them. Some of the side effects people worry about, tolerance, dependency and suppressing what is called REM sleep which is the most desirable of all the different sleeps. You want to get as much REM. You don't want to suppress that. Some sleeping pills do that.

But here's the bottom line really, Miles, is that this particular drug, the thing that's most unique about it, the bottom line message is that it's been tested now for six months at a time. Most people take these pills just occasionally for long flights, things like that. But if you are a chronic insomniac this drug appears to have a low side effect profile with those things compared to other drugs out there.

(CROSSTALK)

M. O'BRIEN: Well, bottom line then, who would be a good candidate for this?

GUPTA: Yes. Well, you can see the list there already. The people who are going to have chronic problems with sleep. You're up in New York for a week, for example. This might be a tough week for you.

But if you're going to be someone who's having chronic insomnia or someone who has chronic pain conditions, as you can see the list there, people who are going to have chronic problems with sleep are going to be good candidates for this.

There are bad candidates, as well. People who should not take that. People who are -- for instance are actually going to have to perform things like doctors on call. Elderly or frail people, as well may have problems with this particular thing.

(LAUGHTER)

M. O'BRIEN: All right.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: We're laughing, Sanjay. We're laughing, Sanjay.

M. O'BRIEN: Sanjay, I'm getting no sympathy. Go ahead, recreate what you did...

(CROSSTALK)

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: ... starting to nod off there.

S. O'BRIEN: When Sanjay said, Poor, Miles, he's up here for a whole week filling in. That's so hard for you.

CAFFERTY: You have trouble sleeping? Put on Fox News. You'll be out in a heartbeat.

(LAUGHTER)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired October 29, 2003 - 09:43   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: If you can't get a good night's sleep we have some good news for you. There's a new drug that could make all that tossing and turning a thing of the past. Medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta joining us from CNN Center with the details and yet another silver bullet solution. Right, Sanjay?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And I think this story was seemingly designed for morning anchors, Miles. You've got to pay attention for this one.

There's a lot of good sleeping pills out there but most of them have been tested mainly for short-term use. People who occasionally don't get a good night's sleep, that -- maybe that sleeping be good for them. What about the people who are chronic insomniacs?

Insomnia is a really specific term, not just lack of sleep, but poor sleep. People who wake up frequently during the night. Wake up too early in the morning -- probably sounds familiar to you guys there in New York.

About 70 million Americans suffer from some of these symptoms, and therefore sleep is a very big deal to them. And there's a new drug that maybe they should keep an eye on. It's not FDA approved yet but that process could be coming soon. It's called "Estorra" and it's recently -- I should point out that some of the designers of the study actually helped design the drug itself as well.

But some interesting data now coming out about this drug. It seems that actually improves the quality of sleep for longer periods of time, over a longer period of time. Meaning not just one night or two nights at a time, but some of these people in the study took the drug for up to six months at a time and had some significant benefit -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: So what exactly about their sleep improved? Was it the length of sleep? The quality? You know, give us...

(CROSSTALK)

GUPTA: Well, sleep can be measured by a lot of different parameters. And length of sleep, quality of sleep, all of those things important.

But also take a look here. The start of the study, all of those people were sleeping about 300 minutes, that's five hours. After six months the Estorra actually 382 minutes, that's almost an hour and a half extra of sleep compared to a placebo group who were focused on getting more sleep but not taking anything to do it, 345 minutes there.

Even more remarkably for some is that the onset of sleep was twice as quickly in the Estorra group compared to the placebo group. So people actually falling asleep much faster, staying asleep longer. Those two parameters -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Five hours does not seem like enough regardless. Even though there is improvement there.

All right, what about side effects? All these sleeping pills generally have some sort of downside the next morning.

GUPTA: Yes. And again as I said at the beginning, there's a lot of good sleeping pills out there. There are side effects to just about all of them. Some of the side effects people worry about, tolerance, dependency and suppressing what is called REM sleep which is the most desirable of all the different sleeps. You want to get as much REM. You don't want to suppress that. Some sleeping pills do that.

But here's the bottom line really, Miles, is that this particular drug, the thing that's most unique about it, the bottom line message is that it's been tested now for six months at a time. Most people take these pills just occasionally for long flights, things like that. But if you are a chronic insomniac this drug appears to have a low side effect profile with those things compared to other drugs out there.

(CROSSTALK)

M. O'BRIEN: Well, bottom line then, who would be a good candidate for this?

GUPTA: Yes. Well, you can see the list there already. The people who are going to have chronic problems with sleep. You're up in New York for a week, for example. This might be a tough week for you.

But if you're going to be someone who's having chronic insomnia or someone who has chronic pain conditions, as you can see the list there, people who are going to have chronic problems with sleep are going to be good candidates for this.

There are bad candidates, as well. People who should not take that. People who are -- for instance are actually going to have to perform things like doctors on call. Elderly or frail people, as well may have problems with this particular thing.

(LAUGHTER)

M. O'BRIEN: All right.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: We're laughing, Sanjay. We're laughing, Sanjay.

M. O'BRIEN: Sanjay, I'm getting no sympathy. Go ahead, recreate what you did...

(CROSSTALK)

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: ... starting to nod off there.

S. O'BRIEN: When Sanjay said, Poor, Miles, he's up here for a whole week filling in. That's so hard for you.

CAFFERTY: You have trouble sleeping? Put on Fox News. You'll be out in a heartbeat.

(LAUGHTER)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com