Hypnotic effectiveness of sodium salicylamide with short-term use: sleep laboratory studies.

Sodium salicylamide in doses of 650 and 1,300 mg was evaluated in two separate sleep laboratory drug evaluation studies of insomniac patients. Each study utilized a standard protocol of 10 consecutive laboratory nights consisting of four placebo nights for adaptation and baseline, three drug nights for short-term drug administration and three placebo nights for evaluating withdrawal. Neither dose had a clear-cut hypnotic effect in inducing or maintaining sleep. Sleep stages were not effected by drug administration or drug withdrawal. Both the objective findings and subjective estimates suggest that the 1,300-mg dose may have a slight sedative effect. However, when salicylamide is used as an ingredient in over-the-counter preparations, the usual dose is only 200-400 mg.