ABSTRACT

From the beginning of the twentieth century, bromides enjoyed a significant role in the United States as sedatives. With the advent of barbiturates in the 1940s, the use of bromides waned. The therapeutic use of barbiturates would be replaced by other sedative-hypnotics (S/H) of comparable strength, namely, chloral hydrate and meprobamate. With time, benzodiazepines were marketed as therapeutic substitutes for the traditional S/H as more effective, less toxic, and less addictive anxiolytics. The occurrence of barbiturate abuse and toxicity is relatively low; barbiturates have been replaced with therapeutic alternatives, such as benzodiazepines (BZ) Flumazenil, 1,4-imidazobenzodiazepine, is a BZ antagonist. It competitively antagonizes the binding and allosteric effects of BZs. Flumazenil completely reverses sedative, anxiolytic, anticonvulsant, ataxic, anesthetic, comatose, and muscle relaxant effects. Zolpidem is a non-benzodiazepine hypnotic of the imidazopyridine class. Pharmacologically, it interacts with the gamma-aminobutyric acid–BZ receptor complex and shares some pharmacological properties of BZs.