Emergency Department Visits Attributed to Overmedication That Involved the Insomnia Medication Zolpidem

This short report uses data on drug-related emergency department (ED) visits to examine the involvement of zolpidem in ED visits that are related to overmedication. Zolpidem is a medication used to treat insomnia. Overmedication may occur when a patient takes too much of their own medications (i.e., exceeds the prescribed or recommended dose) but excludes drug-related suicide attempts. The report looks at trends in zolpidem-related overmedication ED visits from 2005-2006 to 2009-2010 for both males and females. It also looks at patterns by age group, the other types of drugs that are most commonly involved in the visits, and the outcome of the visits.