雅思阅读模拟真题：Sleep medication linked to bizarre behaviour_雅思英语阅读

雅思阅读模拟真题：Sleep medication linked to bizarre behaviour

　　Patient advocacy groups say they would like government health agencies and drug companies to take a closer look at the possible risks associated with sleep medicines. They stress that strange sleepwalking and sleep-driving behaviours can have risky consequences.

　　When people do something in which theyre not in full control its always a danger, says Vera Sharav of the New York-based Alliance for Human Research Protection, a US network that advocates responsible and ethical medical research practices.

　　Tried and tested

　　The more reports that come out about the potential side effects of the drug, the more research needs to be done to understand if these are real side effects, says sleep researcher Kenneth Wright at the University of Colorado in Boulder, US.

　　Millions of people have taken the drug without experiencing any strange side effects, points out Richard Millman at Brown Medical School, director of the Sleep Disorders Center of Lifespan Hospitals in Providence, Rhode Island, US. He says that unlike older types of sleep medications, zolpidem does not carry as great a risk of addiction.

　　And Wright notes that some of the reports of sleep-driving linked to zolpidem can be easily explained: some patients have wrongly taken the drug right before leaving work in hopes that the medicine will kick in by the time they reach home. Doctors stress that the medication should be taken just before going to bed.