ABSTRACT
Interest in the psychological impact of hypnotics was greatly stimulated by laboratory studies which showed that sleeping drugs taken at night can adversely affect the efficiency of behaviour the following day. The onset and severity of rebound effects will depend upon the speed at which the drug is eliminated from the body. Thus, the withdrawal of shorter acting drugs produces an earlier rebound than the withdrawal of long acting drugs. The bulk of all prescribed hypnotics are benzodiazepines. Nevertheless, non-benzodiazepine and non-barbiturate hypnotics continue to be prescribed. Because of their consistent use amongst the elderly, two of these drugs merit some attention here. In Britain dichloralphenazone, a derivative of chloral hydrate (one of the first synthetic hypnotics), is not infrequently prescribed for elderly people living at home. In contrast to dichloralphenazone, chlormethiazole is rarely prescribed for the elderly living at home, but is commonly prescribed as a hypnotic for elderly hospital inpatients.
