Question: I have been tried on a slew of pharmacological and nonpharmacological treatments for chronic insomnia since I was a child. I have tried everything imaginable from the standard zolpidem to trazadone and quetiapine, to hydroxyzine, etc etc etc.. So far but one either do not work at all or I am not comfortable with the health risks or side effects. I was prescribed one drug while living in Japan, etizolam, known as Depas there, and I had no problem falling asleep, and there's never a single problem staying asleep until time to start my new day. We started at .5mg each night, trying at that dose for three nights, and increasing the dose by another .5mg per night if there were no results by the third night. In the end it turned out that I needed 2mg to fall asleep properly and stay sound asleep until morning. I have been taking 2mg etizolam each night without a problem for about one month and have not built any sort of tolerance at this point. Now I have moved to another country and so I import my etizolam from India as Etilaam and continue to take the medication as prescribed. I have read that tolerance can be an issue, but that the tolerance might tend to develop differently depending on whether it is being used for anxiety, depression, sleep, etc. The effects of tolerance develop differently according to the different ailments. And in some cases, for some ailments, there might be no tolerance. So could you tell me, without a simple "yes this is totally fine," or "no, this is quite similar to a benzodiazepine and is therefore highly tolerance-building and therefore addicting," whether this might be a viable long term solution to my sleeping issues, and whether I should expect to develop a tolerance over time. Thank you.

Hi there, Thank you for your response. Actually, this is for my girlfriend. I've asked her the questions you've given me, and she says that both of her parents are doctors, and so recently they made her get her thyroid levels checked (all is normal), and she's recently (due to one case of mental illness in the family) had a comprehensive psychological examination (three one-hour sessions), and they found all is normal besides the sleep problem, which she's seen doctors for for years. Also, no other daily meds. Thank you again

Thank you so much for your helpful response. You checked into the personal medical situation before giving a response that answered the question directly. Please reply to this message so I can close this session and review/give feedback on your help. Thanks