Tranquilizers drug indications

Prescription Sedatives and Tranquilizers

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A tranquilizer is a drug that acts on the central nervous system and is used to calm, decrease anxiety, or help a person to sleep. Often called depressants because they suppress the central nervous system and slow the body down, they are used to treat mental illness as well as common anxiety and sleeplessness. Available only by prescription, they can cause dependence and certain ones can easily be abused.

All three types of drugs commonly including under the heading of tranquilizers are addictive:

• barbiturates

• benzodiazepines

• sleeping aids

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Words to Know

Anxiety: A feeling of uneasiness and distress about something in the future.

Insomnia: Inability to go to sleep or stay asleep.

Psychosis: A major psychiatric disorder characterized by the inability to tell what is real from what is not real.

Schizophrenia: A serious mental illness characterized by isolation from others and thought and emotional disturbances.

About the same time, another compound called reserpine became useful as a major tranquilizer. It was found to reduce the delusions and hallucinations of schizophrenics

What are some examples?

Quaaludes, Xanax, Valium, Klonopin, Ativan

What are some street names/slang terms?

Benzos, Downers

What are they?

Prescription medications that act as central nervous system depressants. Barbiturates are prescription sedatives or “sleeping pills” and benzodiazepines are prescription tranquilizers.

What do they look like?

Multi-colored tablets and capsules; some can be in liquid form.

How are they used?

Medically, barbiturates are prescribed for acute anxiety, tension and sleep disorders. Benzodiazepines are prescribed for anxiety, acute stress reactions, and panic attacks. When abused, they are swallowed or injected.

What are the dangers of abuse?

Higher doses cause impaired memory, judgment and coordination; paranoia; irritability; and suicidal ideation. Combining with other substances — particularly alcohol — can slow the heart rate and breathing, and possibly lead to death.

What are their short-term effects?

Prescription sedatives and tranquilizers can cause euphoria. They also slow normal brain function, which may result in slurred speech, shallow breathing, sluggishness, fatigue, disorientation and lack of coordination or dilated pupils. During the first few days of taking a prescribed sedative or tranquilizer, a person usually feels sleepy and uncoordinated, but as the body becomes accustomed to the effects of the drug, these feelings begin to disappear. Higher doses cause impaired memory, judgment and coordination; irritability; paranoia; and suicidal ideation. Some people experience a paradoxical reaction to these drugs and can become agitated or aggressive. Using prescription sedatives and tranquilizers with other substances — particularly alcohol — can slow breathing, or slow both the heart and respiration, and possibly lead to death.

What are their long-term effects?

Continued use can lead to physical dependence and — when use is reduced or stopped abruptly — withdrawal symptoms may occur. Because all Prescription sedatives and tranquilizers work by slowing the brain’s activity, when an individual stops taking them, there can be a rebound effect, possibly leading to seizures and other harmful consequences. Tolerance to the drug’s effects can also occur, meaning that larger doses are needed to achieve similar effects as those experienced initially. This may lead users to take higher doses and risk the occurrence of an overdose. Addiction can also occur, meaning that users continue to take these drugs despite their harmful consequences.