The hypnotic effects of thiopentone, propofol and their combination were studied in 120 unpremedicated ASA group I patients. The end-point for induction of anaesthesia was taken as inability to open the eyes to command 60 s after the end of injection. The dose-response curves were determined by probit analysis. Isobolographic and algebraic (fractional) analyses were used to assess quantitativel...

The increasing use of shorter-acting hypnotic agents to control intracranial pressure (ICP) following severe head injury has prompted a prospective double-blind controlled trial comparing the efficacy of etomidate and Althesin, given by i.v. infusion. Over the dose ranges used, the two drugs appeared equipotent in decreasing ICP whilst preserving cerebral perfusion pressure. However, in two pat...

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the efficacy of hypnosis for management of claustrophobia in patients submitted to magnetic resonance imaging. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twenty claustrophobic patients referred for magnetic resonance imaging under sedation were submitted to hypnosis using the Braid technique. The patients susceptible to hypnosis were submitted to magnetic resonance imaging under hypnotic tra...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the clinical and cost impact of providing cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) for insomnia (comprising sleep hygiene, stimulus control, relaxation and cognitive therapy components) to long-term hypnotic drug users in general practice. DESIGN A pragmatic randomised controlled trial with two treatment arms (a CBT treated 'sleep clinic' group, and a 'no additional treatment' ...

hypnotic drugs are prescribed to many older adults despite the nearly 5-fold increased risk of adverse cognitive events associated with their use (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.47 to 15.47), the 2.6-fold increased risk of adverse psychomotor events (95% CI 1.12 to 6.09), the association with falls and hip fractures and the 5-fold increased risk of hospital admission after a motor vehicle colli...

BACKGROUND Despite their widespread use the effects of taking benzodiazepines and non-benzodiazepine hypnotics during pregnancy on the risk of major congenital anomaly (MCA) are uncertain. The objectives were to estimate absolute and relative risks of MCAs in children exposed to specific anxiolytic and hypnotic drugs taken in the first trimester of pregnancy, compared with children of mothers w...

Cortical evoked response audiometry is adequate for approximating hearing threshold levels with frequency specificity when the psychoacoustic responses lack reliability and reproducibility (compensation claim). It is well-known that control of wakefulness is essential for the reliability of slow vertex responses (SVR). Therefore, sedative, hypnotic, and neuroleptic drugs are supposed to have po...