BACKGROUND Renal failure is an important adverse effect of drug poisoning. Determining the prevalence and etiology of this serious side effect could help us find appropriate strategies for the prevention of renal failure in most affected patients. OBJECTIVES The present study is aimed to identify drugs that induce renal failure and also to find the prevalence of renal failure in patients refe...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate associations between exposure to corticosteroids or sedative-hypnotic medications and incident self-reported depressive symptoms in medical inpatients. METHOD The study utilized a prospective cohort design, focusing on acute depressive symptoms developing soon after medication exposure. The incidence of self-reported depressive symptoms was evaluated using a modified ver...

Peter H. Tonner, MD* BACKGROUND: The IV anesthetic, etomidate, has structural and clinical similarities to specific 2-adrenoceptor agonists such as dexmedetomidine. We investigated whether the sedative effects of etomidate may be mediated by 2-adrenoceptors. METHODS: The anesthetic potency of etomidate (1–20 M) was determined in Xenopus laevis tadpoles in the absence and presence of the specifi...

The rhizomes of Gastrodia elata have been used for the treatment of insomnia in oriental countries. N⁶-(4-hydroxybenzyl) adenine riboside (NHBA) was originally isolated from G. elata. For the first time we report a detailed study on the effects and mechanisms of NHBA on its sedative and hypnotic activity. Adenosine, an endogenous sleep factor, regulates sleep-wake cycle via interacting with ade...