We tend to think that drugs are safer and more effective than they really are.  According to a report from MSNBC, based on NIH figures, between 2000 and 2004, the use of sleep medications doubled among adults aged 20-44. Use in children even increased by 85%.

Americans were spending around $5 billion each year on sleep medications in 2007; that number has since increased. According to the October 23, 2007 issue of the New York Times, also reporting NIH figures, newer sleeping pills like Ambien, Lunesta, and Sonata reduced the average time to go to sleep by just under 13 minutes compared with fake pills. The sleeping pill Rozerem, gets you to sleep 7 to 16 minutes faster than a placebo, and increases total sleep time 11 to 19 minutes for the low, low price of $3.50 per pill.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention looked at 2.4 billion drugs prescribed in visits to doctors and hospitals in 2005. Of those, 118 million were for antidepressants. In the decade between 1996 and 2006 the use of anxiety medication, anti-depressants, and antipsychotic drugs has increased by 73% in adults and by 50% in children. The New England Journal of Medicine published that the reporting of results of antidepressant trials exaggerates the effectiveness of the drugs. According to the published literature, nearly all studies conducted (94%) had positive treatment results, but FDA data showed that in fact only about half (51%) of the studies were positive. The author of the report, Erick Turner, M.D., assistant professor of psychiatry, physiology and pharmacology at Oregon Health & Science University and Medical Director of the Portland Veterans Affairs Medical Center’s Mood Disorders Program states, “Selective publication can lead doctors and patients to believe drugs are more effective than they really are, which can influence prescribing decisions.”

Antidepressants are linked to violent behavior and to suicide in younger people. Sleep medication has been linked to bizarre things like sleep eating and traveler’s amnesia.