Bipolar affective disorder is often poorly controlled by prescribed drugs. Cannabis use is common in patients with this disorder and anecdotal reports suggest that some patients take it to alleviate symptoms of both mania and depression. We undertook a literature review of cannabis use by patients with bipolar disorder and of the neuropharmacological properties of cannabinoids suggesting possib...

This study was carried out in order to establish the scient medicinal use of Stachytarpheta cayennensis (Verbanace toxicity and barbituric-hypnotic test of the total aqueous and butanol (SCBT), ethylacetate (SCEA) fractions of were studied in male rats and mice. The effect of system sleep architecture in rats was also evaluated in Sp chronically implanted with electrodes for electr electromyogr...

Insomnia is one of the more common complaints patients present to their physicians. Sleep problems affect up to one-third of all Americans, and the loss of workplace productivity and increased healthcare utilization result in costs approaching $100 billion a year. Patients with acute insomnia generally respond well to various sedative hypnotic medications, but chronic insomnia is a different ch...

The present study investigated the sedative effects of Sophora flavescens (SF) and its bioactive compound, matrine through performing locomotor activity test and the electroencephalography (EEG) analysis in the rat. The underlying neural mechanism of their beneficial effects was determined by assessing c-Fos immunoreactivity and serotonin (5-HT) in the brain utilizing immunohistochemical method...

hypnotic drugs are prescribed to many older adults despite the nearly 5-fold increased risk of adverse cognitive events associated with their use (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.47 to 15.47), the 2.6-fold increased risk of adverse psychomotor events (95% CI 1.12 to 6.09), the association with falls and hip fractures and the 5-fold increased risk of hospital admission after a motor vehicle colli...

Ligands acting at the benzodiazepine (BZ) site of g-aminobutyric acid type A (GABAA) receptors currently are the most widely used hypnotics. BZs such as diazepam (Dz) potentiate GABAA receptor activation. To determine the GABAA receptor subtypes that mediate the hypnotic action of Dz wild-type mice and mice that harbor Dz-insensitive a1 GABAA receptors [a1 (H101R) mice] were compared. Sleep lat...