AbstractWhereas there are some case reports of bupropion‐induced vivid dreaming and nightmares, until now it has not been associated with somnambulism. A case is reported of a patient treated with bupropion as a smoking cessation medication, who developed somnambulism during nicotine withdrawal. Furthermore, the sleepwalking episodes were associated with eating behaviour. Amnesia was reported for all episodes. As, on one hand, bupropion is a noradrenergic and dopaminergic drug and nicotine withdrawal, on the other hand, is associated with alterations in monoaminergic functions, an interaction at the level of these neurotransmitters is suggested as the underlying mechanism.

<h4>Introduction</h4>The GABA(A) receptor agonist zolpidem has been used for treatment of insomnia since years, but special side effects have been reported. These side effects were called zolpidem-induced sleep-related complex behaviour. Such complex behaviour is associated with somnambulism and includes sleepwalking, sleep eating, sleep conversation and sleep driving.<h4>Case presentation</h4>Two cases of zolpidem-induced sleep-related complex behaviour following self-intoxication, sleep driving and amnesia are presented. In both cases, the subjects reported the voluntary intake of only one zolpidem tablet of 10 mg and amnesia for the time afterwards. Shortly after the onset of the drug's action, both individuals drifted into a somnambulism-like state and toxicological blood analysis suggested the intake of the remaining zolpidem tablets which might be called "sleep intoxication". Later, the subjects were arrested by police after driving under drug influence and not realizing the situation. Retrospectively, both subjects suffered from psychiatric disorders and in case 2, the subject was treated for depression with doxepin. Consequently, these co-factors may have increased the risk for the occurrence of the sleep-related complex behaviour.<h4>Discussion</h4>Involuntary self-intoxication should be taken into account in addition to the known pattern of zolpidem-induced complex behaviour. In legal cases, the forensic expert has to assess the blood concentration of zolpidem in evaluating this strange behaviour.<h4>Conclusion</h4>Amnesia and incoherence of speech, disorganization of behaviour, inability to realize the situation and mood changes may indicate a zolpidem-induced somnambulism-like state with sleep-related complex behaviour.

AbstractObjectiveBuspirone has not heretofore been reported to trigger somnambulism. Such a case is described.BackgroundBuspirone is a partial 5HT1A agonist, which acts to suppress REM sleep and increase sleep fragmentation (Ware, 1994).Design/MethodsA 36-year old right handed woman presented with one-year of constant anxiety and panic attacks with epochs of dyspnea, tachycardia, diaphoresis,paresthesias of both hands, and out of body sensations. She affirmed déjà vu and PM insomnia, and vivid dreams. When in high school she had one sleepwalking event, without recurrence. The patient was begun on buspirone, initially 2.5 mg and raised to 5 mg QHS. Within a day of increasing the dose, she experienced an episode whereby in the early hours in the morning, she removed her pajamas, folded them neatly into a stack next to the bed, and returned to bed, sans clothes. She was amnestic for this event, but based this history on her husband’s report. She discontinued the buspironeand for over 1 year, there has been no recurrence of such events.ResultsAbnormalities in her neurological examination: Mental StatusExaminationAnxious. Memory: immediate recall: 7 digits forwards and 4 digits backwards: Cranial Nerve Examination: Cranial Nerve I: Alcohol Sniff Test: 8 cm (hyposmia), Reflexes: 3+ throughout. Neuropsychiatric testing: Clock Drawing test: 4 (Normal). Animal Fluency test: 20 (normal).ConclusionsBuspirone induced somnambulism may relate directly to its mechanism of action, as a 5HT1A partial agonist. Since other 5HT1A agonists, to cause noctambulism (Raja2012). Buspirone increases sleep fragmentation (Wilson, 2005), and thus may act to disrupt slow wave sleep, promoting susceptibility to somnambulism. Alternatively, her somnambulism may be a nocturnal variant of Buspirone induced dissociative state (Bystritsky, 2013). Given the above, it is worthwhile to query those who are undergoing therapy with buspirone for the development of somnambulism.Funding AcknowledgementsNo funding.

as animal magnetism and early hypnosis (reinterpreted from mesmeric “somnambulism”), Spiritualism/psychical research, and fin de siècle occultism and comparative Western esotericism and psychology surveys the documented exchanges between Western esotericism—including Westernized hybrids of Asian traditions—and selected areas of psychology, psychotherapy, and popular psychology. From the late eighteenth century onward, conduits such as animal magnetism and early hypnosis (reinterpreted from mesmeric “somnambulism”), Spiritualism/psychical research, and fin Tradition interfaces in this period Mesmerism and induced “somnambulism” popularised controlled trance and supplied early conduits from esoteric milieus to psychological technique (later recoded as hypnosis and suggestion). spiritualism and early psychical research generated case-materials—automatic writing, trance communication, secondary personalities—that fed debates on imagination and dissociation; Flournoy’s monograph is paradigmatic for this descriptive turn. Late-nineteenth-century indological receptions (e.g., Neo-Vedantic, mentalist readings of Raja Yoga) prefigured the twentieth-century translation of body–attention repertoires into secular or symbolic frames.

Abstract This study aims to examine the alteration of interoception during hypnosis. Research on hypnosis as an altered state of consciousness has been increasingly investigated over the last decades, especially with computer-assisted methods. Although changes in interoception have been observed in other altered states of consciousness, it has not been investigated yet, whether they occur in the context of hypnosis. Research on this matter may provide further knowledge about the neurological mechanisms of hypnosis and offer additional expertise for the application of hypnosis in clinical and psychotherapeutic settings. Current studies regarding hypnosis as a neurophysiological state show heterogeneity in their results, low sample sizes and tend to unimodal approaches in methodological investigation. This study was designed to analyse electrophysiological mechanisms concerning interoceptive sensation in two states of hypnosis in a within-subjects experiment involving the sample of 40 participants, who are highly trained in hypnosis. The lighter and first state of hypnosis used in this experiment is thereby called somnambulism, whereas the second and more deepened state is named esdaile. Both states were compared with two equivalent control states. All states were standardised and induced by hypnosis experts. For measuring interoception, the heartbeat-evoked potential (HEP), heart rate variability and the heart rate were generated from EEG and ECG, while for investigating the s

belief that somnambulism can be induced through artificial means, just as sleep can be encouraged … why animal magnetism can be applied to all living things and can be stored in nonliving … complete biographical information on Mesmer can be found in Artelt 1965; Benz 1976, 1977; Buranelli