ABSTRACT
A “sedative” drug reduces response to all sensory input by mildly depressing the central nervous system. The benzodiazepine molecule was synthesized in the 1950s as a pharmacotherapeutic alternative to the barbiturates that had dominated the sedative-hypnotic market for the previous 100 years. The benzodiazepines and their active metabolites share similar sedative and hypnotic actions with no one benzodiazepine being significantly superior to the others. The sedative-hypnotic actions of the benzodiazepines are potentiated by the actions of all other psychodepressants. The z-drugs are rapidly becoming the most frequently medically prescribed sedative-hypnotics in the United State. Suvorexant, the most recently released miscellaneous prescription sedative-hypnotic, is quite likely nonmedically used by adolescents and young adults in the United State —but substantiating published research are currently unavailable. The pharmacology of suvorexant is unique in comparison to other prescription sedative-hypnotics.
