In spite of tremendous advances in medical science, sleep has not been understood completely. The causes for many of parasomnias are still not evident. Even then these parasomnias are treated with different drugs, one of the major groups among them being sedative hypnotics. The use of sedative hypnotics are always associated with adverse effect, and there is many a times loss of the normal slee...

Extensive use of barbiturates as sedative, anti··convulsant and anaesthetic drugs is well known. Most of the information available on these drugs is on mammals (1. 2~ 8, 9). It may, therefore. be interesting to study the effect of these classes of drugs on other vertebrates, such as amphibians and hence the present investigations on the sedative effect of barbital sodium on four species of frog...

People with a learning disability are often disadvantaged due to the nature of their disability. Up to a third are likely to have concomitant epilepsy which adds to the health loss experienced by this group. It is important to manage their epilepsy in such a way as to limit the debilitating effects of both the illness and the medication. Rectal diazepam remains the gold standard rescue medicati...

Dexmedetomidine is a novel sedative that was approved for use in the US at the end of the last century. Currently, the FDA labeling for its use are: sedation in non-intubated patients prior to and during surgical and other procedures, and in intubated and mechanically ventilated patients during treatment in an intensive care setting and to be administered by continuous infusion not to exceed 24...

Zolpidem belongs to a new class of hypnotic agents, chemically distinct from the pre-existing ones, and has a unique neuropharmacological profile. It induces sedative/hypnotic effects in rodents at doses much lower than those for anticonvulsant and myorelaxant activities. Clinically, zolpidem is indicated for the short term treatment of insomnia. It has a short half-life (2.4h), with no active ...

BACKGROUND According to current guidelines flexible bronchoscopy is usually performed under sedation. Previously it has been demonstrated that combined sedation with e. g. the combination of midazolam and propofol or an opioid might have several advantages over sedation with just one sedative drug. However, little is known about the efficacy and safety of combined sedation with midazolam, fenta...

PURPOSE A national survey of members of the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry was conducted to provide a 15-year update of information regarding the use of sedative agents by pediatric dentists. METHODS All 3,315 active members of the Academy were sent questionnaires regarding the frequency of their use of sedation and 1,778 responded. Practitioners were questioned regarding their use o...

The sedative and toxic properties of morphine, and five semi-synthetic opiates (diamorphine, dihydromorphinone, dihydrocodeine, oxymorphone and oxycodone) have been determined by giving them, in a double-blind trial, as pre-anaesthetic medication to a standard female population. Diamorphine and dihydromorphinone produced the best sedation whilst dihydrocodeine was least efficient in this respec...

Poincaré indices are usually applied to HRV to summarise long data sets collected over 24 hrs. Many applications of HRV are interested in dynamic, short term changes (<1 min). This study uses Poincaré indices published through the 1990's to the present, to determine which of them are correlated over the short term (25 beats). Dynamic changes were observed in 12 subjects pre-operatively receivin...

AIMS Accurate recognition of facial expressions of emotion is critical in interpersonal interaction but is impaired in alcoholics, even after a period of abstinence. Little is known of whether other drug-dependent populations also show these impairments. This study aimed to investigate facial expression recognition by chronic opiate users. DESIGN An independent group design was used to compar...