sedative

sedative Technically, a drug causing sedation. Useful for the treatment of patients with anxiety, and who are restless and agitated such that normal function is impaired. Sedatives are more properly called anxiolytic drugs. Anxiolytics should not be confused with hypnotics, which cause sleep — although sedation may often allow those with troubling anxieties to be able to sleep. Sedative drugs taken at higher doses can often act as hypnotics in those suffering from insomnia. Until twenty years ago the main group of sedative drugs were the barbiturates, now almost entirely replaced by the benzodiazepines. Miscellaneous other modern drugs, such as glutethimide and meprobamate, are also used as sedatives, as are some very old ones, such as chloral hydrate. The latter mixed with an alcoholic drink is known as a Mickey Finn, used, in detective literature at least, to knock out the ‘goodies’.

Alan W. Cuthbert