Mortality and Cancer Risks, Which Pills to Avoid & Better Alternatives
Last Revised April 2019
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Mortality and Cancer Risks, Which Pills to Avoid & Better Alternatives
About Dr. Kripke and Disclosures of Financial Interest
Daniel F. Kripke, M.D. is a licensed physician certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology and an Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego. For many years, he has done research with the Scripps Clinic Viterbi Family Sleep Center. Dr. Kripke was elected a Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. Dr. Kripke has co-authored hundreds of medical articles and has given invited lectures in 18 countries. The American College of Physicians and the European Guidelines on Diagnosis and Treatment of Insomnia have been generous in citing Dr. Kripke’s research in their new insomnia treatment guidelines.[89] In 1973, Dr. Kripke established one of the first sleep clinics in the United States. He has been treating patients with sleep disorders and doing research on sleep ever since.
Please do not contact Dr. Kripke for personal advice. Dr. Kripke is no longer seeing patients, and the California Medical Board thinks it is unethical for a physician to give personal advice to a patient he has not personally examined. You could make an appointment for a personal consultation with physicians at the Scripps Clinic Viterbi Family Sleep Center[90] or look for other sleep physicians at numerous web sites such as those sponsored by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM).[91]
Acknowledgment: I have been fortunate that my research has been supported for over 40 years mainly by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Department of Veterans Affairs. The Department of Psychiatry, the Sam and Rose Stein Institute for Research on Aging, and the Center for Chronobiology of the University of California, San Diego have also supported my research, as has the Weingart Foundation and the American Cancer Society. Some years ago my laboratory received research grants from agencies of the U.S. Army and the U.S. Navy, and from 1966-1968, I was a US Air Force sleep researcher. Recently, the Scripps Clinic Viterbi Family Sleep Center has been supporting some of my research, particularly the most recent study of mortality associated with hypnotics, assisted by the help of generous gifts from private donors. Ambulatory Monitoring, Inc. (the manufacturer of the Actillume and other wrist actigraphs) and Minimitter-Respironics (makers of actigraphs); also, The Sunbox Company, Apollo Health (now part of Phillips), and Enviro-Med (which make bright light boxes) have supported our research, partly through joint research projects funded by the National Institutes of Health. In the 1970’s and 1980’s, I did sleeping pill studies with Hoffmann-La Roche and Upjohn and once consulted with Schering, but for years I have avoided accepting any fee from pharmaceutical manufacturers, so that I would be free to report this information. I also stopped accepting fees from tort lawyers or class-action attorneys. It is important that readers understand for whom an author works. Being supported largely by public funds, I have felt responsible for explaining the research results in the public interest. I appreciate this opportunity.
Endnotes for Chapter 12
89. Wilt, T. J., MacDonald, R., Brasure, M. , Olson, C. M., Carlyle, M., Fuchs, E., Khawaja, I. S., Diem, S., Koffel, E., Ouellette, J., Butler, M., and Kane, R. L., Pharmacologic Treatment of Insomnia Disorder: An Evidence Report for a Clinical Practice Guideline by the American College of Physicians. Ann Intern.Med 165(2), 103-112. 5-3-2016.
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90. More information about Scripps Clinic Viterbi Family Sleep Center in La Jolla, California, is available online,
www.scripps.org/services/sleep-medicine, or by phoning (858) 554-8845. [[return]
91. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM), a national accrediting body for sleep disorders centers and laboratories, lists more than 2,000 of its accredited centers and labs at its website sleepeducation.org/find-a-facility, and provides patient education at its website sleepeducation.org. [return]
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