HEALTH-RELATED QUALITY-OF-LIFE IN PATIENTS WITH INSOMNIA TREATED WITHZOPICLONE

Insomnia can cause impaired productivity and absenteeism from work, in creased risk of accidents, and impaired quality of family and social l ife. Thus, it can compromise quality of life in affected individuals a nd result in costs to society as a whole. The nonbenzodiazepine hypnot ic zopiclone is effective and well tolerated in the treatment of insom nia. Importantly, it also has minimal effects on next-day performance and psychological function. 458 patients treated with zopiclone for 14 days showed significantly greater improvement compared with placebo r ecipients in sleep evaluation questions and scores for activity, socia l and professional quality-of-life aspects. After 8 weeks, the improve ment in scores for sleep, activity and social questions remained signi ficantly higher in patients who had received zopiclone compared with p lacebo recipients. No significant differences were observed between 16 7 patients who had been taking zopiclone for at least 12 months and a control group of 381 persons with no sleep problems in virtually all o f the 5 aspects of the quality-of-life questionnaire. Some important a spects such as relationships and professional life were not modified b y zopiclone. When insomnia is treated appropriately, compared with no treatment, patients' feelings about their quality of life are improved and, furthermore, do not appear to differ significantly from percepti ons of quality of life in those without sleep-related problems.