Short-term quazepam treatment of insomnia in geriatric patients.

The efficacy and safety of 15 mg quazepam was compared with placebo in 57 geriatric outpatients with insomnia. The study was double-blind, with treatments randomly assigned to patients. Placebo was taken by all patients for the first 3 nights followed by either placebo or quazepam for 5 nights. Post-sleep questionnaires were completed each day and the physician and patients rated the treatment at the end of the study. Quazepam was significantly better than placebo on all measures of efficacy. Indices of sleep quantity and quality showed that 15 mg quazepam produced significantly greater improvement in sleep than placebo on the first night of treatment and for the treatment period as a whole. There were no reports of unexpected or serious adverse experiences, and quazepam did not cause ataxia or impairment of motor co-ordination in any patient.