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Sedatives and Hypnotics: Overview

Sedatives and Hypnotics: Overview

Sedatives are drugs that alleviate anxiety, while hypnotics induce sleep. Both classes of medication suppress neuronal activity, leading to a calming effect for sedatives and facilitating sleep for hypnotics.
Sedative-hypnotics are categorized into barbiturates, benzodiazepines (BZDs), and non-benzodiazepines or Z-drugs. These drugs work by suppressing central nervous system activity, and this suppression is dose-dependent. Older sedative medications, like barbiturates, follow a linear curve in...

Sedatives and Hypnotics Drugs: Miscellaneous Agents

Sedatives and Hypnotics Drugs: Miscellaneous Agents

Sedatives and hypnotics encompass a wide range of substances, each with its unique mechanism of action, uses, and potential adverse effects.
Melatonin congeners like ramelteon (Rozerem) and tasimelteon (Hetlioz) selectively bind to melatonin receptors (MT1 and MT2) and thus mimic the actions of melatonin, a hormone that regulates sleep-wake cycles. Tasimelteon is primarily used for non-24-hour sleep-wake disorder, common in blind patients. They are also used to treat conditions like insomnia...

Drug Therapy

Drug Therapy

The advent of drug therapy has profoundly shaped modern mental health care, providing targeted treatments for a range of psychological disorders. Psychotherapeutic drugs, classified into antianxiety, antidepressant, and antipsychotic medications, address symptoms across anxiety disorders, mood disorders, and schizophrenia. While these medications have transformed patient outcomes, they require careful management due to their potential side effects and limitations.
Antianxiety Medications

Sedatives and Hypnotics Drugs: Benzodiazepines

Sedatives and Hypnotics Drugs: Benzodiazepines

Benzodiazepines have both sedative and hypnotic properties. They include compounds such as diazepam (Valium) and alprazolam (Xanax). Structurally, their cores are similar, consisting of the fusion of a benzene ring and a diazepine ring, but they share a common mechanism of action in the central nervous system (CNS).
Benzodiazepines work by enhancing the effects of the inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA. They bind to the GABAA receptor, increasing its affinity for GABA, which opens chloride...

Anxiolytic Drugs: Overview

Anxiolytic Drugs: Overview

Anxiolytic drugs are vital in managing anxiety disorders by effectively alleviating symptoms such as excessive fear, tachycardia, and tremors. There are several classes of anxiolytic medications, each with unique mechanisms of action and potential side effects.
Primary Types of Anxiolytic Drugs
1. Benzodiazepines:
Benzodiazepines bind to the GABA-A receptor in the brain, enhancing GABA's interaction. This action reduces neurotransmission, effectively blocking anxiety-associated limbic...

CNS Depressants: Barbiturates and Benzodiazepines

CNS Depressants: Barbiturates and Benzodiazepines

CNS depressants include drugs from the category of barbiturates and benzodiazepines. They are valuable medications for managing anxiety disorders and insomnia. Barbiturates, once used to induce and maintain sleep, have been replaced mainly by benzodiazepines due to barbiturate's toxicity, tolerance, and overdose risks. They interact with GABAA receptors, leading to sedation at low doses and potentially coma and death at higher doses. Phenobarbital, a long-acting barbiturate, possesses...

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Rapid In Situ Hybridization using Oligonucleotide Probes on Paraformaldehyde-prefixed Brain of Rats with Serotonin Syndrome

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Rapid tranquillisation: a global perspective.

Pallavi Nadkarni¹, Mahesh Jayaram², Shailesh Nadkarni³

¹Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada, email nadkarnp@kgh.kari.net (at the time of the project, she was a ST4 trainee with Leeds Partnerships Foundation NHS Trust).

Bjpsych International

|November 3, 2017

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Managing aggression in mental health patients is challenging. Rapid tranquillisation trends are influenced more by factors other than scientific evidence, necessitating high-quality trials for global guidelines.

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Area of Science:

Psychiatry
Clinical Pharmacology

Background:

Violence and aggression in mental health patients present significant challenges for healthcare professionals, families, and carers.
Aggressive behaviors impact all facets of clinical care, demanding effective management strategies.

Purpose of the Study:

To highlight changing prescription trends in rapid tranquillisation for managing aggressive behaviors in mental health patients.
To critically appraise the factors influencing the evolution of global guidelines for rapid tranquillisation.

Main Methods:

Review of current prescription trends in rapid tranquillisation.
Appraisal of existing global guidelines and their underlying evidence base.

Main Results:

Prescription trends in rapid tranquillisation are evolving.
Factors beyond scientific evidence appear to significantly influence the development of global guidelines.

Conclusions:

There is a need to re-evaluate the evidence base for rapid tranquillisation practices.
High-quality randomized controlled trials are essential for developing robust and globally applicable guidelines for managing behavioural emergencies in mental health settings.