NITRAZEPAM AND TEMAZEPAM - COMPARATIVE TRIAL OF 2 HYPNOTICS

A specially designed sleep questionnaire was used to assess the performance of the 2 hypnotic drugs. Psychiatric patients were given 5 mg nitrazepam or 10 mg temazepam in identical capsules; they were allowed more if necessary. A double-blind cross-over design was used. Nitrazepam, 5.2 mg, showed few differences from 13.2 mg temazepam. The 2 regimes produced fairly similar reports on patient satisfaction, quality of sleep, number of awakenings, depth of sleep and other variables. Patients on nitrazepam were a little more clear-headed in the morning, though they tended to wake later, sleep longer and take more sleep over the 24 h period. No toxicity was found with either drug over the 434 patient days of administration.