Talk:Sedative

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what is origin of sedatives? who invented it? when was it invented? what is its purpose? street names?

[edit] Merge with hypnotic

The information in hypnotic appears to be fully contained within this article, and these drugs tend to be referred to as "sedative-hypnotics". The categories "sedatives" and "hypnotics" contain mostly the same drugs. Terrace4 09:59, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

Pharmacology students use this page and need to know the difference between the two designations. If the two terms are merged a small blurb, such as the one following, should be included. As well as the fact that some sedatives can be hypnotics depending on dosage. This is a common test question in beginning pharmacology.
I would not merge them. Part of Wikipedia's rubustness is the seperation of important topics. This is one of them.

66.203.32.62 00:16, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

I dont think they should be merged.
sedatives are to relax/reduce anxiety (diazapam)
hyponotics are to induce sleep or deapen sleep (tamazapam) --Blonde2max
They should be merged, and properly categorized within the article with a hypnotic subsection. There are several substances that are classified as both a sedative and a hypnotic, and medical literature often lumps these two categories together, or simply places the hypnotics under a categorization of sedative. --Thoric 18:29, 14 June 2006 (UTC)
Agree with Thoric. Given that they're lumped together so often in the medical literature, we should have a single page describing both. At the very least, the distinction should be made clear in such a way that an editor who does not know the distinction (including most physicians) would not edit one page when he means to edit the other or both. Terrace4 15:12, 17 June 2006 (UTC)
What a shame that most physicians do not know the distinction between sedative and hypnotic. I have had SEVERAL physicians give me improper medications because they thought the drug was in a whole different class than what it was. I am not reffering to Sedative-Hypnotics specifically in my former statement, but a myriad of drugs. Often times they were just uninformed. In one instance, a dentist thought something about a certain drug's constituents because his assistant told him that was the case. She had little more than a high school education. Since physicians themselves largely don't keep up with the evolution of pharmacology and medicine as a whole, it is our responsibility as patients, and to ourselves, to stay informed. And don't think your average pharmacist is going to save you from combining contraindicated medicines. I watched a man buy a GIANT bottle of Aspirin with his prescription for Warfarin, and it was rung up by the pharmacy manager!! He didn't even ask, or mention the fact that you can't take those two drugs together. I asked the man as he walked away from the counter if the aspirin was for him, and he said yes. I told him what the problem was, he went and asked the pharmacist, and then he returned the aspirin. Just because someone is a physician, it doesn't mean that he has kept up with the changes in medicine in the 5-50+ years since he finished medical school.
I don't find the distinction between sedative and hypnotic to be all that hard to find in the "Literature". I do think that someone needs to expand the Hypnotic article though. I don't think they should be merged untill then either.

but sedatives and hypnotics, too all intents and reasons, do diffrent things, it just happens if your sedated enough you sleep. but the action of sedating someone to stop them convulsing and having panic attacks is very diffrent from giving hypnotics, such as barbituate and chloral hydrate to induce sleep (or even to treat insomnia)

Please can we seperate them; and even make a better distinction between the two.

Should we make the distinction clear at the beginning of each page, with cross-references? What should we do with the common term sedative-hypnotic (now redirecting to sedative)?
You might be more capable of making the clear distinctions than I, as I tended to think of sedative and hypnotic as near-synonyms. Terrace4 15:40, 18 June 2006 (UTC)
With the current state of the hypnotic page, it certainly doesn't appear to warrant itself its own page compared to sedative. Hypnotics and sedatives definitely have a lot of overlap, and I don't see why they cannot share a page together. The hypnotics article has never been more than a stub, and I see no effort to bring it beyond that. As all hypnotics are CNS depressants, they all cause some amount of sedation. Are you planning to turn the hypnotics stub into a real article? If not, why oppose it having it merged into its own subsection of an article which will likely result in it getting more attention? Maybe someday it will be significant enough to warrant its own article, but it doesn't look too promising at the moment. --Thoric 21:44, 19 June 2006 (UTC)


Marilyn Monroe and Myra Hindly have a lot of overlap: both being blonde and both being female. I wouldn't expect to see a page with both their names on it though would I!?

The drugs are used for COMPLETELY diffrent reasons. It's wrong to assume they are the same. Their method of action is often diffrent and their effects are diffrent too.

Please don't merge! I beg19:46, 1 July 2006 (UTC)172.201.149.126 19:46, 1 July 2006 (UTC)

I think merging wouldn't be in the best interest of this article, a sedative is not the same as a hypnotic, however similar they may be. --Fearisstrong 04:39, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

Nobody said they were the same, we said they were very similar, and that some drugs are classified as both a sedative and a hypnotic at the same time. Also note that most medical literature groups them together as a large group heading, and then subcategorizes specific drugs under that blanket. --Thoric 14:48, 2 October 2006 (UTC)
As a Pharmacology student I frequently use wikipedia as the first port-of-call to get the general idea on what a particular drug is and what it does before I go searching through the more advanced resorces. In the hypnotic article, the first link goes right to to sedatives, its not necessary to simplify this any further.
I vote NO on the merge. Mvialt 03:32, 29 October 2006 (UTC)


Don't merge:

There are some hypnotic agents that do not act as sedatives: such as the non-selective anti histamines.

also there is a new development of sedative drugs that do not cause drowsiness/sleepiness. these will be very benefitial for people who suffer anxiety but don't want to stop driving/carrying out other manual tasks

I *think* on of these drugs is L-838,417

Hello,

The classification sedative-hypnotic was brought about in the late 1970's by the World Health Organisation and other health bureaucracies to replace the misleading term "minor tranquillisers" and "sleeping pills". Minor tranquillisers such as benzodiazepines and barbiturates and even alcohol at low to moderate doses induce anxiety relief and at higher doses induce sleep. The reality is the official medical definition says they are the same and should not be classed as different, so why does wikipedia have sedative and hypnotic in seperate pages against the official classification? I say merge the two pages as soon as possible. The fact that the world health organisation classes this group of substances/drugs as sedative/hypnotics should end the debate. Merge! :=)--Literaturegeek | T@1k? 09:53, 12 May 2008 (UTC)

See these two links. [1] and [2]--Literaturegeek | T@1k? 09:55, 12 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Suggestion to merge with "depressant"

I do not think this is a good idea as some depressants, such as opioids, are not considered sedatives. The tag has been up a long time without action. I am removing it.—Who123 16:15, 15 April 2007 (UTC)

Wasn't the suggestion was to merge with hypnotic, not depressant? Where did the merge with depressant tag come from? --Thoric 22:14, 15 April 2007 (UTC)
I just checked and the tag was placed in 2-2007 to merge with depressant. There may have been another suggestion to merge with hypnotic but it was not tagged.—Who123 00:23, 16 April 2007 (UTC)
I know that the tag did say hypnotic at one time (that or the hypnotic article previously had a merge with sedative tag... just look above... the only discussion on this topic has been a sedative/hypnotic merger. --Thoric 03:33, 16 April 2007 (UTC)

Opiates are classed as narcotic analgesics. Sedative-hypnotics are mostly GABAergic acting drugs, barbs, benzos, ghb, alcohol etc. The world health organisation coined the term sedative hypnotic. It is an official medical classification. The way the wiki articles are now having two seperate articles is very misleading to the reader. I see people who appear to have a medical or pharmacological background who are even confused themselves on this talk page.--Literaturegeek | T@1k? 10:00, 12 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Thalidomide

Why is thalidomide not in the list? WooyiTalk to me? 02:53, 28 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Merge proposal

I think that the article hypnotic should be merged into this sedative article and renamed to sedative hypnotic. Sedative hypnotic drugs are basically the same thing, only that hypnotics tend to be prescribed at higher doses to induce sleep and tend to be shorter acting. For example diazepam is long acting and thus is mainly marketed for day time use. Temazepam is more short acting and is marketed for insomnia, ie a hypnotic. The same goes for barbiturate sedative hypnotics. Longer acting ones are or were used for day time control of anxiety or seizures and shorter acting ones tended to be used more for insomnia.--Literaturegeek | T@1k? 09:56, 12 May 2008 (UTC)

The classification sedative-hypnotic was brought about in the late 1970's by the World Health Organisation and other health bureaucracies to replace the misleading term "minor tranquillisers" and "sleeping pills". Minor tranquillisers such as benzodiazepines and barbiturates and even alcohol at low to moderate doses induce anxiety relief and at higher doses induce sleep. The reality is the official medical definition says they are the same and should not be classed as different, so why does wikipedia have sedative and hypnotic in seperate pages against the official classification? I say merge the two pages as soon as possible. The fact that the world health organisation classes this group of substances/drugs as sedative/hypnotics should end the debate. Merge! :=) --Literaturegeek | T@1k? 09:56, 12 May 2008 (UTC)

See these two links. [3] and [4]--Literaturegeek | T@1k? 09:56, 12 May 2008 (UTC)