Somnifacient  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

(Redirected from Hypnotic)
Jump to: navigation, search

Related e

Wikipedia
Wiktionary
Shop


Featured:

Somnifacient (from Latin somnus, sleep), also known as sedatives or sleeping pills, is a class of medications that induces sleep. It is mainly used for treatment of insomnia. Examples of somnifacients include benzodiazepines, barbiturates and antihistamines.

Hypnotic

Hypnotic (from Greek Hypnos, sleep) or soporific drugs are a class of psychoactive drugs whose primary function is to induce sleep and to be used in the treatment of insomnia (sleeplessness), or surgical anesthesia.

This group is related to a very similar group of drugs called sedatives. Whereas the term sedative describes drugs that serve to calm or relieve anxiety, the term hypnotic generally describes drugs whose main purpose is to initiate, sustain, or lengthen sleep. Because these two functions frequently overlap, and because drugs in this class generally produce dose-dependent effects (ranging from anxiolysis to loss of consciousness) they are often referred to collectively as sedative-hypnotic drugs.

Hypnotic drugs are regularly prescribed for insomnia and other sleep disorders, with over 95% of insomnia patients being prescribed hypnotics in some countries. Many hypnotic drugs are habit-forming and, due to a large number of factors known to disturb the human sleep pattern, a physician may instead recommend changes in the environment before and during sleep, better sleep hygiene, and the avoidance of caffeine or other stimulating substances before prescribing medication for sleep. When prescribed, hypnotic medication should be used for the shortest period of time possible.

Most hypnotics prescribed today are either benzodiazepines or nonbenzodiazepines. Early classes of drugs, such as barbiturates, have fallen out of use in most practices but are still prescribed for some patients. In children, prescribing hypnotics is not yet acceptable unless used to treat night terrors or somnambulism. Elderly people are more sensitive to potential side effects of daytime fatigue and cognitive impairments, and a meta-analysis found that the risks generally outweigh any marginal benefits of hypnotics in the elderly. A review of the literature regarding benzodiazepine hypnotics and Z-drugs concluded that these drugs can have adverse effects, such as dependence and accidents, and that optimal treatment uses the lowest effective dose for the shortest therapeutic time period, with gradual discontinuation in order to improved health without worsening of sleep. Melatonin (a hormone naturally present in the brain) is sometimes taken as a sleep aid, however it may not be effective.

See also




Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Somnifacient" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

Personal tools