A small randomized controlled trial published in the Annals of the American Thoracic Society found that quetiapine (Seroquel), a widely prescribed antipsychotic used off-label at lower doses to treat insomnia and sleep issues, improved sleep in patients with obstructive sleep apnea but also impaired driving ability the next morning. Researchers from Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia, studied 15 adults with obstructive sleep apnea who also had difficulty maintaining sleep, administering 50mg of quetiapine before bed one night and a placebo the following night, approximately one week apart.
Sleep Improvements and Next-Day Impairment
Those taking quetiapine experienced more than 40 minutes of additional total sleep time and 45% less wakefulness during the night. Their apnea-related events reduced from 27 to 20 events per hour. Despite these improvements, the drug significantly impaired driving performance on tests administered within 30 minutes of waking up. Participants taking quetiapine experienced more than triple the number of attention lapses and swerved out of their lane more often in a driving simulator test.
Safety Concerns and Medication Metabolism
Eleven out of 15 participants reported feeling sleepier the morning after taking the medication, but roughly one in four people did not recognize their level of impairment—a concerning finding given the potential for these individuals to operate vehicles without realizing their reaction time had slowed. Other mild to moderate side effects included nausea, restless legs, and sudden blood pressure drops upon standing, affecting one in three people taking quetiapine.
According to Dr. Ashley Curtis, director of the Cognition, Aging, Sleep and Health (CASH) Lab at the University of South Florida, certain hypnotic medications exhibit sex differences in metabolism. Women generally metabolize these drugs more slowly than men, which can influence both efficacy and the risk of next-day side effects. The researchers recommend that people avoid driving or other safety-critical tasks for at least 9.5 hours after taking quetiapine, and note that larger, longer-term studies are needed to confirm the findings before making prescribing decisions.
This article is an AI-assisted summary. All facts and figures are drawn from the original report: https://www.foxnews.com/health/people-taking-common-sleep-drug-may-realize-theyre-impaired-drive-study-finds