Sedative Hypnotics Drugs
Sedative Hypnotics Drugs
Question about drugs? Please help.?
What is the difference between sedative and hypnotic?
A sedative, or, more specifically, a sedative-hypnotic, is a substance that depresses the central nervous system (CNS),[1] resulting in calmness, relaxation, sleepiness, slowed breathing, reduction anxiety, and possibly - at higher doses - slurred speech, staggering gait, poor judgment, and slow, uncertain reflexes. Doses of sedative-hypnotics when used as a hypnotic to induce sleep tend to be higher than those used to relieve anxiety. Sedative-hypnotics may be referred to as tranquilizers, depressants, anxiolytics, soporifics, and sleeping pills. Sedative-hypnotics can be abused to produce an overly-calming effect (alcohol being the classic and most common sedating drug). At high doses or when they are abused, many of these drugs can cause unconsciousness (see hypnotic) and even death.
Hypnotic drugs induce sleep[1] (which differentiates them from the sedative category), used in the treatment of insomnia and in surgical anesthesia. Often the treatment of insomnia will not begin with drugs at all. Since many hypnotic drugs are habit-forming, a physician will usually recommend alternative sleeping patterns, sleep hygiene, and exercise before prescribing medication for sleep, due to a large number of factors known to disturb the human sleep pattern.
~♫Ally♫~
Warnings for Sleeping Pills (May 2007)
