Although agarwood has been used as a tranquilizer in Asian countries for hundreds of years, the underlying pharmacological basis is still unclear. This study investigated the sedative-hypnotic effect of agarwood essential oil (AEO) using locomotor activity and pentobarbital-induced sleeping assays in mice. Single (1-day) and multiple (7- and 14-days) administrations of 60 mg/kg AEO generated si...

A fatality due to ingestion of zolpidem, a recently developed nonbenzodiazepine hypnotic, and acepromazine, a phenothiazine sedative used in veterinary practice, is reported. Both drugs were identified and quantified using high-performance liquid chromatography with diode-array detection. Zolpidem and acepromazine blood concentrations were 3.29 and 2.40 micrograms/ml, respectively. It is the fi...

OBJECTIVE The authors sought to identify patterns and associations of prescription and over-the-counter sedative-hypnotic use in an older, rural, blue-collar, community-based cohort in southwestern Pennsylvania over 10 years. METHODS A group of 1,627 individuals age 65 and over were recruited and assessed during 1987-1989 and re-assessed during approximately biennial waves. Data included slee...

Despite the large number of elderly patients in nursing homes and the intensity of medication use there, few current data are available on patterns of medication use in this setting. We studied all medication use among 850 residents of 12 representative intermediate-care facilities in Massachusetts. Data on all prescriptions and patterns of actual use were recorded for all patients during one m...

OBJECTIVES An estimated 6%-10% of US adults took a hypnotic drug for poor sleep in 2010. This study extends previous reports associating hypnotics with excess mortality. SETTING A large integrated health system in the USA. DESIGN Longitudinal electronic medical records were extracted for a one-to-two matched cohort survival analysis. SUBJECTS Subjects (mean age 54 years) were 10 529 patie...

In Iranian traditional medicine, plants belonging to Inula genus have been used for the treatment of seizure. We decided to investigate the anticonvulsant activity of seven species from this genus to find an effective remedy for seizure with less adverse effects compared to available medicines. Aqueous and methanolic extracts of Inula britannica, Inula helenium, Inula viscidula, Inula oculus-ch...

In Iranian traditional medicine, plants belonging to Inula genus have been used for the treatment of seizure. We decided to investigate the anticonvulsant activity of seven species from this genus to find an effective remedy for seizure with less adverse effects compared to available medicines. Aqueous and methanolic extracts of Inula britannica, Inula helenium, Inula viscidula, Inula oculus-ch...

Anxiety is a normal behavioral component. When it too frequent or appears in inappropriate contexts, can be considered pathological. Benzodiazepines (BDZs) are drugs with clinical success anxiety treatment. BDZs act as allosteric modulators of the γ- aminobutyric acid A receptor (GABAAR). However, these cause adverse effects. Despite therapeutic advances obtained BDZs, search for anxiolytics fe...