MJ an insomniac? Sleep doc says maybe not

Did Michael Jackson actually suffer from insomnia?  Prosecution expert Dr. Nader Kamangar just testified that while the pop star clearly had problems with sleep, he could not figure out if Jackson actually suffered from insomnia due to the lack of documentation about Jackson’s symptoms.

Dr. Conrad Murray's defense team says Murray was using all those sedatives on Jackson to help treat his insomnia.  In fact, they've been arguing that Jackson not only suffered from insomnia, but that it was caused by his taking the painkiller Demerol, which was prescribed to him by Dr. Arnold Klein.

Again, the defense is attempting to spread the responsibility around to other doctors beyond just Dr. Murray.

Flanagan referred to dermatologist Dr. Arnold Klein's medical records to demonstrate that between April and June 2009, Dr. Klein gave Jackson a total of 6500 mg of Demerol.

Dr. Kamangar, a pulmonary critical care and sleep medicine physician, confirmed Demerol can cause insomnia, but again, couldn't determine if Jackson even suffered from the condition.

Much of the testimony also involved the basic question of whether propofol could even be used to treat insomnia, under any conditions.  Flanagan suggested it could, relying heavily on an experiment conducted in China that concluded propofol may help with treating insomnia under certain circumstances. Dr. Kamangar pointed out that the Chinese study was an initial experiment and is far from being the standard method to treat insomnia.

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