Jmol
Jmol is computer software for molecular modelling chemical structures in 3-dimensions. Jmol returns a 3D representation of a molecule that may be used as a teaching tool, or for research e.g. in chemistry and biochemistry. It is written in the programming language Java, so it can run on the operating systems Windows, macOS, Unix, if Java is installed, it is free and open-source software released under a GNU Lesser General Public License version 2.0. A standalone application and a software development kit exist that can be integrated into other Java applications, such as Bioclipse and Taverna. A popular feature is an applet that can be integrated into web pages to display molecules in a variety of ways. For example, molecules can be displayed as ball-and-stick models, space-filling models, ribbon diagrams, etc. Jmol supports a wide range of chemical file formats, including Protein Data Bank, Crystallographic Information File, MDL Molfile, Chemical Markup Language. There is a JavaScript-only version, JSmol, that can be used on computers with no Java.
The Jmol applet, among other abilities, offers an alternative to the Chime plug-in, no longer under active development. While Jmol has many features that Chime lacks, it does not claim to reproduce all Chime functions, most notably, the Sculpt mode. Chime requires plug-in installation and Internet Explorer 6.0 or Firefox 2.0 on Microsoft Windows, or Netscape Communicator 4.8 on Mac OS 9. Jmol operates on a wide variety of platforms. For example, Jmol is functional in Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Safari. Chemistry Development Kit Comparison of software for molecular mechanics modeling Jmol extension for MediaWiki List of molecular graphics systems Molecular graphics Molecule editor Proteopedia PyMOL SAMSON Official website Wiki with listings of websites and moodles Willighagen, Egon. "Fast and Scriptable Molecular Graphics in Web Browsers without Java3D". Doi:10.1038/npre.2007.50.1
Route of administration
A route of administration in pharmacology and toxicology is the path by which a drug, poison, or other substance is taken into the body. Routes of administration are classified by the location at which the substance is applied. Common examples include intravenous administration. Routes can be classified based on where the target of action is. Action may be enteral, or parenteral. Route of administration and dosage form are aspects of drug delivery. Routes of administration are classified by application location; the route or course the active substance takes from application location to the location where it has its target effect is rather a matter of pharmacokinetics. Exceptions include the transdermal or transmucosal routes, which are still referred to as routes of administration; the location of the target effect of active substances are rather a matter of pharmacodynamics. An exception is topical administration, which means that both the application location and the effect thereof is local. Topical administration is sometimes defined as both a local application location and local pharmacodynamic effect, sometimes as a local application location regardless of location of the effects.
Administration through the gastrointestinal tract is sometimes termed enteral or enteric administration. Enteral/enteric administration includes oral and rectal administration, in the sense that these are taken up by the intestines. However, uptake of drugs administered orally may occur in the stomach, as such gastrointestinal may be a more fitting term for this route of administration. Furthermore, some application locations classified as enteral, such as sublingual and sublabial or buccal, are taken up in the proximal part of the gastrointestinal tract without reaching the intestines. Enteral administration can be used for systemic administration, as well as local, such as in a contrast enema, whereby contrast media is infused into the intestines for imaging. However, for the purposes of classification based on location of effects, the term enteral is reserved for substances with systemic effects. Many drugs as tablets, capsules, or drops are taken orally. Administration methods directly into the stomach include those by gastric feeding tube or gastrostomy.
Substances may be placed into the small intestines, as with a duodenal feeding tube and enteral nutrition. Enteric coated tablets are designed to dissolve in the intestine, not the stomach, because the drug present in the tablet causes irritation in the stomach; the rectal route is an effective route of administration for many medications those used at the end of life. The walls of the rectum absorb many medications and effectively. Medications delivered to the distal one-third of the rectum at least avoid the "first pass effect" through the liver, which allows for greater bio-availability of many medications than that of the oral route. Rectal mucosa is vascularized tissue that allows for rapid and effective absorption of medications. A suppository is a solid dosage form. In hospice care, a specialized rectal catheter, designed to provide comfortable and discreet administration of ongoing medications provides a practical way to deliver and retain liquid formulations in the distal rectum, giving health practitioners a way to leverage the established benefits of rectal administration.
The parenteral route is any route, not enteral. Parenteral administration can be performed by injection, that is, using a needle and a syringe, or by the insertion of an indwelling catheter. Locations of application of parenteral administration include: central nervous systemepidural, e.g. epidural anesthesia intracerebral direct injection into the brain. Used in experimental research of chemicals and as a treatment for malignancies of the brain; the intracerebral route can interrupt the blood brain barrier from holding up against subsequent routes. Intracerebroventricular administration into the ventricular system of the brain. One use is as a last line of opioid treatment for terminal cancer patients with intractable cancer pain. Epicutaneous, it can be used both for local effect as in allergy testing and typical local anesthesia, as well as systemic effects when the active substance diffuses through skin in a transdermal route. Sublingual and buccal medication administration is a way of giving someone medicine orally.
Sublingual administration is. The word "sublingual" means "under the tongue." Buccal administration involves placement of the drug between the cheek. These medications can come in the form of films, or sprays. Many drugs are designed for sublingual administration, including cardiovascular drugs, barbiturates, opioid analgesics with poor gastrointestinal bioavailability and vitamins and minerals. Extra-amniotic administration, between the endometrium and fetal membranes nasal administration (th
Regulation of therapeutic goods
The regulation of therapeutic goods, drugs and therapeutic devices, varies by jurisdiction. In some countries, such as the United States, they are regulated at the national level by a single agency. In other jurisdictions they are regulated at the state level, or at both state and national levels by various bodies, as is the case in Australia; the role of therapeutic goods regulation is designed to protect the health and safety of the population. Regulation is aimed at ensuring the safety and efficacy of the therapeutic goods which are covered under the scope of the regulation. In most jurisdictions, therapeutic goods must be registered. There is some degree of restriction of the availability of certain therapeutic goods depending on their risk to consumers. Modern drug regulation has historical roots in the response to the proliferation of universal antidotes which appeared in the wake of Mithridates' death. Mithridates had brought together physicians and shamans to concoct a potion that would make him immune to poisons.
Following his death, the Romans became keen on further developing the Mithridates potion's recipe. Mithridatium re-entered western society through multiple means; the first was through the Leechbook of the Bald, written somewhere between 900 and 950, which contained a formula for various remedies, including for a theriac. Additionally, theriac became a commercial good traded throughout Europe based on the works of Greek and Roman physicians; the resulting proliferation of various recipes needed to be curtailed in order to ensure that people were not passing off fake antidotes, which led to the development of government involvement and regulation. Additionally, the creation of these concoctions took on ritualistic form and were created in public and the process was observed and recorded, it was believed that if the concoction proved unsuccessful, it was due to the apothecaries’ process of making them and they could be held accountable because of the public nature of the creation. In the 9th century, many Muslim countries established an office of the hisba, which in addition to regulating compliance to Islamic principles and values took on the role of regulating other aspects of social and economic life, including the regulation of medicines.
Inspectors were appointed to employ oversight on those who were involved in the process of medicine creation and were given a lot of leigh weigh to ensure compliance and punishments were stringent. The first official'act', the'Apothecary Wares and Stuffs' Act was passed in 1540 by Henry VIII and set the foundation for others. Through this act, he encouraged physicians in his College of Physicians to appoint four people dedicated to inspecting what was being sold in apothecary shops. In conjunction with this first piece of legislation, there was an emergence of standard formulas for the creation of certain ‘drugs’ and ‘antidotes’ through Pharmacopoeias which first appeared in the form of a decree from Frederick II of Sicily in 1240 to use consistent and standard formulas; the first modern pharmacopoeias were the Florence Pharmacopoeia published in 1498, the Spanish Pharmacopoeia published in 1581 and the London Pharmacopoeia published in 1618. In the United States, regulation of drugs was a state right, as opposed to federal right.
But with the increase in fraudulent practices due to private incentives to maximize profits and poor enforcement of state laws, increased the need for stronger federal regulation. President Roosevelt signed the Federal Food and Drug Act in 1906 which established stricter standards. A 1911 Supreme Court decision, United States vs. Johnson, established that misleading statements were not covered under the FFDA; this directly led to Congress passing the Sherley Amendment which established a clearer definition of ‘misbranded’. Another key catalyst for advances in drug regulation were certain catastrophes that served as calls to the government to step in and impose regulations that would prevent repeats of those instances. One such instance occurred in 1937 when more than a hundred people died from using sulfanilamide elixir which had not gone through any safety testing; this directly led to the passing of the Federal, Food and Cosmetic Act in 1938. One other major catastrophe occurred in the late 1950s when Thalidomide, sold in Germany and sold around the world, led to 100,000 babies being born with various deformities.
The UK's Chief Medical Officer had established a group to look into safety of drugs on the market in 1959 prior to the crisis and was moving in the direction of address the problem of unregulated drugs entering the market. The crisis created a greater sense of emergency to establish safety and efficacy standards around the world; the UK started a temporary Committee on Safety of Drugs while they attempted to pass more comprehensive legislation. Though compliance and submission of drugs to the Committee on Safety of Drugs was not mandatory after, the pharmaceutical industry larger complied due to the thalidomide situation; the European Economic Commission passed a directive in 1965 in order to impose greater efficacy standards before marketing a drug. The United States congress passed the Drug Amendments Act of 1962 The Drug Amendments Act required the FDA to ensure that new drugs being introduced to the market had passed certain tests and standards. Both the EU and US acts introduced the requirements to ensure efficacy.
Of note, increased regulations and standards for testing led to greater innovation in pharm
Amobarbital
Amobarbital is a drug, a barbiturate derivative. It has sedative-hypnotic properties, it is a white crystalline powder with no odor and a bitter taste. It was first synthesized in Germany in 1923, it is considered an intermediate acting barbiturate. If amobarbital is taken for extended periods of time and psychological dependence can develop. Amobarbital withdrawal may be life-threatening. Amobarbital was once manufactured by Eli Lilly and Company in the US under the brand name Amytal in bright blue bullet shaped capsule form containing either 50 or 100 mg of the drug, it was abused, known as "blue heavens" on the streets, was discontinued by Eli Lilly in the early 1980s. In an in vitro study in fat thalamic slices amobarbital worked by activating GABAA receptors, which decreased input resistance, depressed burst and tonic firing in ventrobasal and intralaminar neurons, while at the same time increasing burst duration and mean conductance at individual chloride channels. Amobarbital has been used in a study to inhibit mitochondrial electron transport in the rat heart in an attempt to preserve mitochondrial function following reperfusion.
A 1988 study found that amobarbital increases benzodiazepine receptor binding in vivo with less potency than secobarbital and pentobarbital, but greater than phenobarbital and barbital. It has an LD50 in mice of 212 mg/kg s.c. Amobarbital undergoes both hydroxylation to form 3'-hydroxyamobarbital, N-glucosidation to form 1-amobarbital. Anxiety Epilepsy Insomnia Wada test When given by an intravenous route, sodium amobarbital has a reputation for acting as a so-called truth serum. Under the influence, a person will divulge information that under normal circumstances they would block; this was most due to loss of inhibition. As such, the drug was first employed clinically by Dr. William Bleckwenn at the University of Wisconsin to circumvent inhibitions in psychiatric patients; the use of amobarbital as a truth serum has lost credibility due to the discovery that a subject can be coerced into having a "false memory" of the event. The drug may be used intravenously to interview patients with catatonic mutism, sometimes combined with caffeine to prevent sleep.
It was used by the United States armed forces during World War II in an attempt to treat shell shock and return soldiers to the front-line duties. This use has since been discontinued as the powerful sedation, cognitive impairment, dis-coordination induced by the drug reduced soldiers' usefulness in the field. Amobarbital was once manufactured in the US by Eli Lilly Pharmaceuticals under the brand name Amytal in capsule form, it was discontinued in the early 80's replaced by the benzodiazepine family of drugs. Amobarbital was widely abused, known on the streets as "blue heavens" because of their blue capsule; the following drugs should be avoided when taking amobarbital: Antiarrhythmics, such as verapamil and digoxin Antiepileptics, such as phenobarbital or carbamazepine Antihistamines, such as doxylamine and clemastine Antihypertensives, such as atenolol and propranolol EthanolAlcohol https://www.drugs.com/food-interactions/amobarbital.html Benzodiazepines, such as diazepam, nitrazepam,alprazolam,or lorazepam Chloramphenicol Chlorpromazine Cyclophosphamide Ciclosporin Digitoxin Doxorubicin Doxycycline Methoxyflurane Metronidazole Narcotic analgesics, such as morphine and oxycodone Quinine Steroids, such as prednisone and cortisone Theophylline Warfarin Amobarbital has been known to decrease the effects of hormonal birth control, sometimes to the point of uselessness.
Being chemically related to phenobarbital, it might do the same thing to digitoxin, a cardiac glycoside. Some side effects of overdose include confusion. Amobarbital, like all barbiturates, is synthesized by reacting malonic acid derivatives with urea derivatives. In particular, in order to make amobarbital, α-ethyl-α-isoamylmalonic ester is reacted with urea, it has been used to convict alleged murderers such as Andres English-Howard, who strangled his girlfriend to death but claimed innocence. He was surreptitiously administered the drug by his lawyer, under the influence of it he revealed why he strangled her and under what circumstances. On the night of August 28, 1951, the housekeeper of actor Robert Walker found him to be in an emotional state, she called Walker's psychiatrist who administered amobarbital for sedation. Walker was drinking prior to his emotional outburst, it is believed the combination of amobarbital and alcohol resulted in a severe reaction; as a result, he passed out and stopped breathing, all efforts to resuscitate him failed.
Walker died at 32 years old. Eli Lilly manufactured Amobarbital under the brand name Amytal, it was discontinued in the 1980's replaced by the benzodiazepine family of drugs. Amytal was widely abused. Street names for Amobarbital include "blues", "blue angels", "blue birds", "blue devils", "blue heavens" due to their blue capsule. Blue 88 Depressant Tuinal
Simplified molecular-input line-entry system
The simplified molecular-input line-entry system is a specification in the form of a line notation for describing the structure of chemical species using short ASCII strings. SMILES strings can be imported by most molecule editors for conversion back into two-dimensional drawings or three-dimensional models of the molecules; the original SMILES specification was initiated in the 1980s. It has since been extended. In 2007, an open standard called. Other linear notations include the Wiswesser line notation, ROSDAL, SYBYL Line Notation; the original SMILES specification was initiated by David Weininger at the USEPA Mid-Continent Ecology Division Laboratory in Duluth in the 1980s. Acknowledged for their parts in the early development were "Gilman Veith and Rose Russo and Albert Leo and Corwin Hansch for supporting the work, Arthur Weininger and Jeremy Scofield for assistance in programming the system." The Environmental Protection Agency funded the initial project to develop SMILES. It has since been modified and extended by others, most notably by Daylight Chemical Information Systems.
In 2007, an open standard called "OpenSMILES" was developed by the Blue Obelisk open-source chemistry community. Other'linear' notations include the Wiswesser Line Notation, ROSDAL and SLN. In July 2006, the IUPAC introduced the InChI as a standard for formula representation. SMILES is considered to have the advantage of being more human-readable than InChI; the term SMILES refers to a line notation for encoding molecular structures and specific instances should be called SMILES strings. However, the term SMILES is commonly used to refer to both a single SMILES string and a number of SMILES strings; the terms "canonical" and "isomeric" can lead to some confusion when applied to SMILES. The terms are not mutually exclusive. A number of valid SMILES strings can be written for a molecule. For example, CCO, OCC and CC all specify the structure of ethanol. Algorithms have been developed to generate the same SMILES string for a given molecule; this SMILES is unique for each structure, although dependent on the canonicalization algorithm used to generate it, is termed the canonical SMILES.
These algorithms first convert the SMILES to an internal representation of the molecular structure. Various algorithms for generating canonical SMILES have been developed and include those by Daylight Chemical Information Systems, OpenEye Scientific Software, MEDIT, Chemical Computing Group, MolSoft LLC, the Chemistry Development Kit. A common application of canonical SMILES is indexing and ensuring uniqueness of molecules in a database; the original paper that described the CANGEN algorithm claimed to generate unique SMILES strings for graphs representing molecules, but the algorithm fails for a number of simple cases and cannot be considered a correct method for representing a graph canonically. There is no systematic comparison across commercial software to test if such flaws exist in those packages. SMILES notation allows the specification of configuration at tetrahedral centers, double bond geometry; these are structural features that cannot be specified by connectivity alone and SMILES which encode this information are termed isomeric SMILES.
A notable feature of these rules is. The term isomeric SMILES is applied to SMILES in which isotopes are specified. In terms of a graph-based computational procedure, SMILES is a string obtained by printing the symbol nodes encountered in a depth-first tree traversal of a chemical graph; the chemical graph is first trimmed to remove hydrogen atoms and cycles are broken to turn it into a spanning tree. Where cycles have been broken, numeric suffix labels are included to indicate the connected nodes. Parentheses are used to indicate points of branching on the tree; the resultant SMILES form depends on the choices: of the bonds chosen to break cycles, of the starting atom used for the depth-first traversal, of the order in which branches are listed when encountered. Atoms are represented by the standard abbreviation of the chemical elements, in square brackets, such as for gold. Brackets may be omitted in the common case of atoms which: are in the "organic subset" of B, C, N, O, P, S, F, Cl, Br, or I, have no formal charge, have the number of hydrogens attached implied by the SMILES valence model, are the normal isotopes, are not chiral centers.
All other elements must be enclosed in brackets, have charges and hydrogens shown explicitly. For instance, the SMILES for water may be written as either O or. Hydrogen may be written as a separate atom; when brackets are used, the symbol H is added if the atom in brackets is bonded to one or more hydrogen, followed by the number of hydrogen atoms if greater than 1 by the sign + for a positive charge or by - for a negative charge. For example, for ammonium. If there is more than one charge, it is written as digit.
Alcohol
In chemistry, an alcohol is any organic compound in which the hydroxyl functional group is bound to a carbon. The term alcohol referred to the primary alcohol ethanol, used as a drug and is the main alcohol present in alcoholic beverages. An important class of alcohols, of which methanol and ethanol are the simplest members, includes all compounds for which the general formula is CnH2n+1OH, it is these simple monoalcohols. The suffix -ol appears in the IUPAC chemical name of all substances where the hydroxyl group is the functional group with the highest priority; when a higher priority group is present in the compound, the prefix hydroxy- is used in its IUPAC name. The suffix -ol in non-IUPAC names typically indicates that the substance is an alcohol. However, many substances that contain hydroxyl functional groups have names which include neither the suffix -ol, nor the prefix hydroxy-. Alcohol distillation originated in India. During 2000 BCE, people of India used. Alcohol distillation was known to Islamic chemists as early as the eighth century.
The Arab chemist, al-Kindi, unambiguously described the distillation of wine in a treatise titled as "The Book of the chemistry of Perfume and Distillations". The Persian physician, alchemist and philosopher Rhazes is credited with the discovery of ethanol; the word "alcohol" is from a powder used as an eyeliner. Al- is the Arabic definite article, equivalent to the in English. Alcohol was used for the fine powder produced by the sublimation of the natural mineral stibnite to form antimony trisulfide Sb2S3, it was considered to be the essence or "spirit" of this mineral. It was used as an antiseptic and cosmetic; the meaning of alcohol was extended to distilled substances in general, narrowed to ethanol, when "spirits" was a synonym for hard liquor. Bartholomew Traheron, in his 1543 translation of John of Vigo, introduces the word as a term used by "barbarous" authors for "fine powder." Vigo wrote: "the barbarous auctours use alcohol, or alcofoll, for moost fine poudre."The 1657 Lexicon Chymicum, by William Johnson glosses the word as "antimonium sive stibium."
By extension, the word came to refer to any fluid obtained by distillation, including "alcohol of wine," the distilled essence of wine. Libavius in Alchymia refers to "vini alcohol vel vinum alcalisatum". Johnson glosses alcohol vini as "quando omnis superfluitas vini a vino separatur, ita ut accensum ardeat donec totum consumatur, nihilque fæcum aut phlegmatis in fundo remaneat." The word's meaning became restricted to "spirit of wine" in the 18th century and was extended to the class of substances so-called as "alcohols" in modern chemistry after 1850. The term ethanol was invented 1892, combining the word ethane with the "-ol" ending of "alcohol". IUPAC nomenclature is used in scientific publications and where precise identification of the substance is important in cases where the relative complexity of the molecule does not make such a systematic name unwieldy. In naming simple alcohols, the name of the alkane chain loses the terminal e and adds the suffix -ol, e.g. as in "ethanol" from the alkane chain name "ethane".
When necessary, the position of the hydroxyl group is indicated by a number between the alkane name and the -ol: propan-1-ol for CH3CH2CH2OH, propan-2-ol for CH3CHCH3. If a higher priority group is present the prefix hydroxy-is used, e.g. as in 1-hydroxy-2-propanone. In cases where the OH functional group is bonded to an sp2 carbon on an aromatic ring the molecule is known as a phenol, is named using the IUPAC rules for naming phenols. In other less formal contexts, an alcohol is called with the name of the corresponding alkyl group followed by the word "alcohol", e.g. methyl alcohol, ethyl alcohol. Propyl alcohol may be n-propyl alcohol or isopropyl alcohol, depending on whether the hydroxyl group is bonded to the end or middle carbon on the straight propane chain; as described under systematic naming, if another group on the molecule takes priority, the alcohol moiety is indicated using the "hydroxy-" prefix. Alcohols are classified into primary and tertiary, based upon the number of carbon atoms connected to the carbon atom that bears the hydroxyl functional group.
The primary alcohols have general formulas RCH2OH. The simplest primary alcohol is methanol, for which R=H, the next is ethanol, for which R=CH3, the methyl group. Secondary alcohols are those of the form RR'CHOH, the simplest of, 2-propanol. For the tertiary alcohols the general form is RR'R"COH; the simplest example is tert-butanol, for which each of R, R', R" is CH3. In these shorthands, R, R', R" represent substituents, alkyl or other attached organic groups. In archaic nomenclature, alcohols can be named as derivatives of methanol using "-carbinol" as the ending. For instance, 3COH can be named trimethylcarbinol. Alcohols have a long history of myriad uses. For simple mono-alcohols, the focus on this article, the following are most important industrial alcohols: methanol for the production of formaldehyde and as a fuel additive ethanol for alcoholic beverages, fuel additive, solvent 1-propanol, 1-butanol, isobutyl alcohol for use as a solvent a
Hypnotic
Hypnotic or soporific drugs known as sleeping pills, are a class of psychoactive drugs whose primary function is to induce sleep and to be used in the treatment of insomnia, or for surgical anesthesia. This group is related to sedatives. Whereas the term sedative describes drugs that serve to calm or relieve anxiety, the term hypnotic describes drugs whose main purpose is to initiate, sustain, or lengthen sleep; because these two functions overlap, because drugs in this class produce dose-dependent effects they are referred to collectively as sedative-hypnotic drugs. Hypnotic drugs are 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, the avoidance of caffeine or other stimulating substances, or behavioral interventions such as cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia before prescribing medication for sleep.
When prescribed, hypnotic medication should be used for the shortest period of time necessary. Among individuals with sleep disorders, 13.7% are taking or prescribed nonbenzodiazepines, while 10.8% are taking benzodiazepines, as of 2010. 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, a meta-analysis found that the risks 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, that optimal treatment uses the lowest effective dose for the shortest therapeutic time period, with gradual discontinuation in order to improve health without worsening of sleep.
Falling outside the above-mentioned categories, the neuro-hormone melatonin has a hypnotic function. Hypnotica was a class of somniferous drugs and substances tested in medicine of the 1890s and including: Urethan, Methylal, paraldehyde, Hypnon and Ohloralamid or Chloralimid. Research about using medications to treat insomnia evolved throughout the last half of the 20th century. Treatment for insomnia in psychiatry dates back to 1869 when chloral hydrate was first used as a soporific. Barbiturates emerged as the first class of drugs that emerged in the early 1900s, after which chemical substitution allowed derivative compounds. Although the best drug family at the time they were dangerous in overdose and tended to cause physical and psychological dependence. During the 1970s, quinazolinones and benzodiazepines were introduced as safer alternatives to replace barbiturates. Benzodiazepines are not without their drawbacks. Questions have been raised as to. Nonbenzodiazepines are the most recent development.
Although it's clear that they are less toxic than their predecessors, comparative efficacy over benzodiazepines have not been established. Without longitudinal studies, it is hard to determine. Other sleep remedies that may be considered "sedative-hypnotics" exist. Examples of these include mirtazapine, clonidine and the over-the-counter sleep aid diphenhydramine. Off-label sleep remedies are useful when first-line treatment is unsuccessful or deemed unsafe. Barbiturates are drugs that act as central nervous system depressants, can therefore produce a wide spectrum of effects, from mild sedation to total anesthesia, they are effective as anxiolytics and anticonvulsalgesic effects. They have dependence liability, both psychological. Barbiturates have now been replaced by benzodiazepines in routine medical practice – for example, in the treatment of anxiety and insomnia – because benzodiazepines are less dangerous in overdose. However, barbiturates are still used in general anesthesia, for epilepsy, assisted suicide.
Barbiturates are derivatives of barbituric acid. The principal mechanism of action of barbiturates is believed to be positive allosteric modulation of GABAA receptors. Examples include amobarbital, phenobarbital and sodium thiopental. Quinazolinones are a class of drugs which function as hypnotic/sedatives that contain a 4-quinazolinone core, their use has been proposed in the treatment of cancer. Examples of quinazolinones include cloroqualone, etaqualone, mebroqualone and methaqualone. Benzodiaz
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