INTRODUCTION There are many common drugs which have significant sedative-hypnotic properties. Alcohol and barbiturates have been discussed separately in this appendix, and their many pharmacological similarities were indicated. Barbiturates are often considered the prototype of sedative-hypnotic drugs; pharmacologically related compounds are frequently identified or discussed in terms of their ...

This study was designed to validate an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS-MS) method for the detection of nine benzodiazepines in hair. Sixteen hair case samples were tested from drug-related deaths where a positive benzodiazepine blood result was obtained. The case samples were decontaminated with 0.1% sodium dodecyl sulfate, dis...

four days and, before this, diazepam 5-10 mg thrice daily and nitrazepam 5 mg at night for seven months. Although fits may occur when larger doses of benzodiazepines are withdrawn, their occurrence after withdrawal of therapeutic doses of this kind is extremely rare.3 A review of published reports has shown only one other case of fits possibly induced by viloxazine; this also occurred during a ...

Early infantile epileptic encephalopathy or EIEE (Ohtahara syndrome; OS) is a kind of intractable seizure that begins in neonatal age with sudden onset of tonic spasms in series or single suppression-burst S-B in EEG. Imaging shows anatomic defects such as migration disorders and generalized atrophy with essentially normal metabolic tests. The seizures often change to West’s syndrome (WS) or Le...

Information on the intestinal microbiota has increased exponentially this century because of technical advancements in genomics and metabolomics. Although information on the synthesis of bile acids by the liver and their transformation to secondary bile acids by the intestinal microbiota was the first example of the importance of the intestinal microbiota in biotransforming chemicals, this revi...

OBJECTIVE To identify risk factors for becoming an excessive user over time. SETTING Prescription database study over five years. SUBJECTS AND METHOD Norwegians between 30 and 60 years with a first dispensation of a benzodiazepine during 2006, encompassing 23 227 individuals. A Cox hazard regression model was defined, initially stratifying on gender, age, county, previous relevant drug disp...

To the Editors: Recently, Baftiu et al. published a very nice and important paper entitled: “Availability of antiepileptic drugs across Europe.” In their study, they observed that the main reasons for poor access to antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) in European countries were lack of regulatory approval, high prices, and reimbursement restrictions. There were large gaps in AED availability across Euro...