Polysomnography and hypnotics.

New drugs. Hypnotics and anxiolytics.

Anxiolytics Anxiety is a normal reaction but when severe and disabling it becomes pathological. Phobias are distinguished from anxiety, and some classifications also separate panic attacks. Patients should be assessed carefully to detect associated problems in their lives and to seek evidence of underlying illness, such as depression and organic brain disease, that may present as anxiety. Conve...

Sleep and the Modern Hypnotics

Although the phenomena of sleep have been well known for a considerable time, the proximate factors in its causation are still but little understood. The phenomena are : A diminution of metabolic processes all over the body ; a relaxation of the voluntary muscles ; a diminution in the secretory activity of all glandular structures ; a slowing of the heart, and a slowing and deepening of respira...

Infant and Pediatric Polysomnography

What do hypnotics cost hospitals and healthcare?

Hypnotics (sleeping pills) are prescribed widely, but the economic costs of the harm they have caused have been largely unrecognized. Randomized clinical trials have proven that hypnotics increase the incidence of infections. Likewise, hypnotics increase the incidence of major depression and cause emergency admissions for overdoses and deaths.  Epidemiologically, hypnotic use is associated with...

Polysomnography during critical illness.

A 48-year-old man with necrotizing fasciitis, acute renal failure, and post-operative from multiple surgical debridement of bilateral lower extremities underwent polysomnography as part of a research protocol. The patient was undergoing mechanical ventilation and was receiving continuous infusion of sedatives and narcotics for comfort. Intravenous midazolam at 5 mg per hour and fentanyl at 75 m...