Sedative-hypnotic drugs family

Flunitrazepam is a tranquilizer developed in the 1960s by Hoffmann-LaRoche, Inc., and first marketed under the trade name Rohypnol in Switzerland in 1975. It is a member of a class of drugs called the benzodiazepines, which includes drugs such as Librium , Xanax , and Valium. This family of sedative-hypnotic drugs is used to treat anxiety, convulsions, muscle tension, and sleep disorders. Rohypnol is a very powerful sedative that can last up to 12 hours, with some residual effects lasting as long as 24 hours. Rohypnol is 10 times more potent than the most commonly known benzodiazepine, Valium (Figure 2.1). 

Sedative-hypnotic drugs and anxiolytic drugs are CNS depressants that are used medically to reduce anxiety and/or induce sleep. They may also be used as anticonvulsants. Phenobarbital, for example, is often the maintenance drug of choice for seizure-prone individuals. In general, the sedative-hypnotic family of drugs includes alcohol, barbiturates, benzodiazepines, and such barbiturate-like drugs as chloral hydrate, glutethi-mide, meprobamate, and methaqualone. 

Barbiturate The family name for a group of drugs with anticonvulsant, anaesthetic and sedative-hypnotic properties. Examples include amylobarbitone and pheno-barbitone. The problem of dependence and the introduction of safer benzodiazepine alternatives has resulted in a marked reduction in their clinical use. 

The personal cost of dependence on prescription sedative-hypnotics is high. Aside from the short- or longterm health effects, physical or psychological dependence may lead to family discord, job loss, birth defects in infants born to addicted mothers, and even criminal behavior and incarceration in individuals who purchase these drugs illicitly. 

Information about prescription drug use alcohol or other substance use family medical history and history of trauma, depression, or head injury should be obtained. It is important to rule out medication use as a contributor or cause of symptoms (e.g., anticholinergics, sedatives, hypnotics, opioids, antipsychotics, and anticonvulsants) as contributors to dementia symptoms. Other medications may contrihute to delirium, e.g.. 

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