This study was designed to determine whether age influences sensitivity to alprazolam and/or rate of acute tolerance development to the effects of alprazolam. Three treatments were each separated by 4 weeks. Twenty-five young (ages 22-35) and 13 elderly (ages 65-75) men received 2 mg of alprazolam/2 min i.v. Blood samples were obtained over 48 hr, and sedative, psychomotor and memory effects we...

Author details Zurich Institute of Forensic Medicine, Center for Forensic Hair Analytics, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland. Zurich Institute of Forensic Medicine, Center for Forensic Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland. Institute of Veterinary Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland. Clinic of Veterinary Surgery, Departm...

BACKGROUND Transcutaneous neurostimulation (TNS) at extracephalic sites is a well known treatment of pain. Thanks to recent technical progress, the Cefaly® device now also allows supraorbital TNS. During observational clinical studies, several patients reported decreased vigilance or even sleepiness during a session of supraorbital TNS. We decided therefore to explore in more detail the potenti...

Insomnia is a highly prevalent sleep disorder that frequently occurs in its acute form and occurs at a rate of approximately 10 per cent in its chronic form in many countries. There is a high prevalence of insomnia in a variety of medical and psychiatric conditions for which insomnia often serves as a risk factor. The aetiology and pathophysiology of insomnia is such that several factors may pr...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate associations between exposure to corticosteroids or sedative-hypnotic medications and incident self-reported depressive symptoms in medical inpatients. METHOD The study utilized a prospective cohort design, focusing on acute depressive symptoms developing soon after medication exposure. The incidence of self-reported depressive symptoms was evaluated using a modified ver...

BACKGROUND Anticholinergic and sedative (ACh-Sed) medications are commonly prescribed for older adults and are associated with adverse events. OBJECTIVES (1) To investigate perspectives of health care practitioners (HCPs) surrounding deprescribing (withdrawal) of ACh-Sed medications in older adults; (2) to assess HCPs' perspectives on the design and implementation of a report on a patient's e...

Although insomnia due to neurotic illness is one of the commonest of symptoms, reports on the comparative efficacy of hypnotics in man are rare. Werz and Homann (1939) and Cohen and Beecher (1951) made controlled comparative studies but were concerned with the sedative rather than the hypnotic effects of the drugs they used. Meyers, Cook, and Page (1940) investigated the hypnotic action of five...

BACKGROUND Self-prescribing among doctors is common, but no longitudinal studies have documented this issue. We studied the self-prescribing behaviour among young Norwegian physicians and the predictors of self-prescribing. METHODS We conducted a nationwide, prospective and longitudinal study following young Norwegian physicians from internship through the subsequent nine years using three po...

OBJECTIVE To study the effects of oromucosal detomidine gel administered sublingually to calves prior to disbudding, and to compare its efficacy with intravenously (IV) administered detomidine. STUDY DESIGN Randomised, prospective clinical study. ANIMALS Twenty dairy calves aged 12.4 ± 4.4days (mean ± SD), weight 50.5 ± 9.0 kg. METHODS Detomidine at 80 μg kg(-1) was administered to ten ca...