Timothy Brueggeman and Ambien

Ambien is a horrible, horrible drug.

I speak from firsthand experience. It was ineffective as a sleep aid and had terrible side effects.

Lots of anecdotal evidence suggests that people taking Ambien as prescribed have sleepwalking episodes. I had one such incident.

In my opinion, taking Ambien is taking an unnecessary risk. In short, the drug sucks.

Some new information on the case of the Hayward, Wisconsin man who froze to death while sleepwalking Monday night possibly adds to the mounting evidence that Ambien is dangerous.

From the Star Tribune:

After Hayward, Wis., electrician Timothy Brueggeman froze to death while sleepwalking barefoot in his underwear Monday night, authorities were initially baffled.

"How in the hell can a guy walk out in 20-below zero and not wake up?" Sawyer County Chief Deputy Tim Zeigle said he asked himself. Going through Brueggeman's bedroom, investigators found a possible answer -- a bottle of Ambien.

The most-prescribed sleep aid in the United States has helped millions, but it has also has been linked to hundreds of cases of sleepwalking, sleep-driving and even sleep-shoplifting. Such cases led to a class-action suit against Sanofi-Aventis. The drugmaker, which maintains that Ambien is safe when taken correctly and not mixed with alcohol or other drugs, didn't respond to requests for comment Wednesday.

While many insomnia sufferers use the drug without bizarre side-effects, the 51-year-old Brueggeman was not one of them, according to his family and friends.

After taking Ambien and going to bed one night last summer, Brueggeman drove his pickup without waking up, according to longtime friend Ed Lesniak.

"He drove into the side of his own garage, knocked a neighbor's hanging plant off the eave of their house, and came to rest against a tree," Lesniak said. "The next day he didn't know what happened."

Brueggeman's mother, Geraldine Brueggeman, of Bloomington, said she was so unnerved by that episode that she made her son promise never to take the drug again. She said Wednesday that he had been plagued by insomnia for 10 years and apparently went back to the drug or never stopped.

No.

Drugmaker Sanofi-Aventis is wrong. Ambien is not safe. The side effects in some cases are dramatic and potentially deadly, not only to the individual taking the drug but to others as well.

Sure, plenty of people take it and it works for them. But would you want to experiment and find out if you're one of the unlucky ones prone to suffering extremely negative effects?

I don't know how doctors can prescribe it with a clear conscience.

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Brueggeman was found about 190 yards from his rural Hayward home late Tuesday morning - hours after the temperature plunged to 16 below zero. He only had on underwear and a fleece shirt, Zeigle said.

"We know he had a prescription for Ambien, but we don't know whether he took it that night," Zeigle said Thursday. "We also suspect he was drinking alcohol."

Investigators are awaiting results of toxicology tests for those answers, he said.

Coroner John Ryan said Brueggeman died of hypothermia.

...[Ed] Lesniak said his friend, who "tried to make everyone laugh," sometimes drank while taking Ambien.

"He was like a lot of us," Lesniak said. "He'd stop off after work or have a couple throughout the evening and then take a pill to go to sleep."

While Ambien has been connected to many cases of people doing strange things in their sleep, people could sleepwalk in the snow without the drug, said Michel Cramer-Bornemann of the Minnesota Regional Sleep Disorders Center at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis.

Blah, blah, blah. I think it's irresponsible for Cramer-Bornemann and others to carry water for Sanofi-Aventis.

Of course, there are cases of sleepwalking that aren't connected to Ambien. No kidding.

And it's certainly possible that Brueggeman combined alcohol with the drug.

I don't think people understand what it's like to suffer from insomnia. It's different from having trouble sleeping now and then. It's like the difference between being anxious and suffering from acute anxiety attacks.

In any event, it appears that Ambien could have played a role in Brueggeman's death. It's a tragic story and my prayers go out to his family and friends.

It really ticks me off that Sanofi-Aventis blames the victims of Ambien on improper use of the drug.

No. It can have disastrous effects when used as prescribed.

FACT.