Deadly Combo?

I cant believe they still have not fixed the name. "Health Ledger" wake up people. Oh my bad the other post was done only 10 minutes ago they probably need a couple of days to fix it.

It's a shame that Newsweek could not get the poor blokes name right. It's Heath, not Health...

At the time of the message, they have his named spelled 'Health' Ledger. I would say that his name is about the most important thing the article, right? If you can't get that right, can I really trust that anything else you write is accurate? Thx. -j

Informative and cogent discussion. It's certainly possible that the combination of a benzodiazepine (Xanax or Valium) and Ambien--particularly in higher-than-recommended dosages--could have led to Ledger's death More thoughts regarding these particular agents can be found at http://bmartinmd.com/2008/01/in-case-of-emergency-do-not-ca.html.

He had a difficult time sleeping they say, so he resorted to prescription drugs.Would have fared better off if he just drank a six pack of malt liquor to fall asleep. Works for me :)

Heath's name is spelt Health (incorrect) in your first sentence of this article.

It's a shame that Newsweek could not get the poor blokes name right.

It's Heath, not Health...

I am saddened by the loss of Heath Ledger. As a person who is impatient -- and sometimes pops more tha one sleeping pill if the other doesn't work -- I will take this tragedy as a lesson. May God bless his family, particularly his little Matilda.

I think it's hard to take this article seriously when they keep referring to him as "Health" Ledger. His name is HEATH Ledger.

I was wondering how did the housekeeper knew he was naked , yet she said he was covered from his feet up to his neck ? any suggestions. Overall my heart hurts for Heat and his family. May god watch over him and his family.

the comment "you cannot die from taking to much" is not correct .You absolutely can die from an overdose of benzodiazepines. they do not have to be mixed with other medications to be lethal.
From the site http://www.emedicine.com/EMERG/topic58.htm
Frequency
United States
In 2005, a total of 67,593 BZD exposures were reported to US poison control centers, of which 3018 (0.04%) resulted in major toxicity and 243 (0.003%) resulted in death. From 1995-2002, the frequency of ED visits involving BZD increased by 41%.

International
In the 1980s, an overall rate of 5.9 fatalities per million prescriptions for BZDs occurred in Great Britain; temazepam and flurazepam appeared to be the most toxic.
Mortality from a pure BZD overdose is rare; it usually occurs in conjunction with concomitant alcohol ingestion or use of other sedative-hypnotics. Intravenous administration or overdose of ultrashort-acting BZDs (eg, triazolam [Halcion]) is more likely to result in apnea and death. Elderly individuals and very young persons are more susceptible to the CNS depressant effects of BZDs than people in other age groups.

My mother died from an accidental overdose of prescription medications, anti-psychotics and anti-depressants after drinking a couple of margaritas. The combination turned out to be fatal. She went to sleep and never woke up. She was 40. This could happen to anyone who takes these types of medications and it's very easy to do.

A

Benzodiazepines (Valium, Ativan, Klonipin) have a ceiling effect.. meaning, you cannot die from taking too much. Your central nervous system would get extremely depressed... but you won't die. If Heath mixed drugs with the benzo's, that's a different story. Media should not speculate what happened. That's what the toxicology reports are for.

"Health" Ledger?? Proof read, please!!

You have to be ultra-careful when taking multiple prescriptions. So many can interact negatively with each other that it's crucial to talk to your doctor and your pharmacist about what to take and when and how many, especially any anti-depressive, anti-anxiety or any psychiatric drugs that affect the nervous system. It sounds to me like Ledger got way too many meds, possibly from either the same or different doctors and didn't know about which ones to take, how often, etc. I understand he suffered from great anxiety as a result of playing what will be remembered as his final role as The Joker in the upcoming Batman movie and that it deeply disturbed him to the point of causing him sleep problems. The problem with Ambien is that it makes you forget, so if he took that in combination with anti-anxiety drugs, it sounds like it could well have proven fatal for him, especially if he was in run down condition to begin with.

A word of warning: approach taking any drugs of these kinds with extreme caution. It's too easy to think, well, one pill didn't work, I think I'll just pop as many as I can until I feel like it's working. If the bottle says, Take One Daily, they MEAN it! This is NOT a suggested amount; this is the prescribed amount. Don't mess with prescription drugs - they can be deadly, as we've found out with the tragic and unnecessary death of such a young and promising talent as Heath Ledger.

He's just an excitable boy.

Why don't we wait and see if the meds were even in his system before jumping to that conclusion. Bully for you to get by without but some people aren't the same. He might have gotten several just to try to see which one worked for anxiety and insomnia, which I've seen doctors do. I have Rx meds in my house that I filled but never took so could've been the same with him. Just as we can't understand the stress/anxiety YOU went through, in all due respect, YOU do not understand the kind he might have faced. While I totally agree with you that some doctors are too quick to prescribe for any little thing, let's give the benefit of the doubt and await the final reports before assuming that's what even killed this young man. You are also assuming he asked for the pills instead of a doctor recommending them and/or persuading him to take them. I've seen many patients have the meds pushed on them and if you're only getting 2-4 hours of sleep, you get desperate enough to try at times. It's also been reported he had the flu or pneumonia, which could have compromised his respiratory status to the point where a lesser degree of the med might have the lethal effect. The point is - we don't know yet. He didn't appear to have illegal drugs, which is more than you can say for a lot in his craft, and my thoughts and prayers go to his family and young child right now, despite the cause of death.

It sounds like he may have gotten several different scripts from several different doctors (in several different countries) if so it could have resulted in a very unfortunate culmination of aspects. One should never mix any of these meds with any alcohol, much less several of them, which appears to at least be possibly the case here.

This tragic result could perhaps have been prevented and serves as a warning to the young people who admired this young talent, of what can possibly happen. One has tp approach drugs like this with extreme caution...

Everyone deals with stress in a different manner. The description of Heath Ledger's insomnia is spot on with what I deal with every night. Imagine sleeping two hours a night for months at a time, and not even sleeping pills help. It is very frustrating and debilitating. I feel for him; I'm sure it was just a bad combination of the anti-anxiety drugs and sleeping pills that taxed his system. It's just sad....