Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-ws8qp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T21:08:13.879Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Effects of Hypnotics on Anxious Patients

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Ann Malpas
Affiliation:
Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, London Hospital Medical College, London E1 1BB
N. J. Legg
Affiliation:
Imperial Cancer Research Fund, Lincoln's Inn Fields, London WC2A 3PX
D. F. Scott
Affiliation:
Section of Neurological Sciences, The London Hospital, London E1 1BB

Extract

The sedative effects of single doses of hypnotic drugs in normals are still detectable on behavioural tests 13 hours after administration, and on the electroencephalogram (EEG) at 18 hours (Malpas et al., 1970), and similar results have been noted by other workers (Lader and Walters, 1971). Using measures of driving skill, Betts et al. (1972) have also found that normal subjects may be impaired after five doses of amylobarbitone sodium taken over the preceding 36 hours. However, the relevance of all these results to the prediction of effects in patients for whom the drugs are prescribed is uncertain, as our preliminary report indicated (Legg et al., 1973). Here we present the more detailed results of a study carried out on anxious out-patients, using behavioural and EEG measures to determine whether or not persistent effects were present following a course of 7 days treatment with hypnotic drugs.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1974 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aitken, R. C. B. (1969). ‘Measurement of feelings using visual analogue scales.’ Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine, 62, 898–92.Google ScholarPubMed
Beaumont, G., Rooney, J. F. F., Murphy, J. E., and Donald, J. F. (1970). ‘The use of patients self rating scales in assessment of anxiolytic drugs.’ 7th CINP Meeting Prague, Czechoslovakia.Google Scholar
Betts, T. A., Clayton, A. B., and Mackay, G. M. (1972). ‘Effects of four commonly-used tranquillizers on low speed driving performance tests.’ British Medical Journal, 4, 580–84.Google Scholar
Bloomfield, S. S., Tetreault, L., Lafreniere, B., and Bordeleau, J. M. (1967). ‘A method of evaluation of hypnotic agents in man.’ Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, 156, 375–82.Google Scholar
Cochran, W. G., and Cox, G. M. (1957). Experimental Designs. London: Chapman and Hall.Google Scholar
Crown, S., and Crisp, A. H. (1969). Manual of the Middlesex Hospital Questionnaire. Devon, England: Psychological Test Publications.Google Scholar
Lader, M. H., and Walters, A. J. (1971). ‘Hangover effects of hypnotics in man.’ British Journal of Pharmacology, 41, 413.Google Scholar
Legg, N. J., Malpas, A., and Scott, D. F. (1973). ‘Effects of tranquillisers and hypnotics on driving.’ British Medical Journal, 1, 417.Google Scholar
Malpas, A., Rowan, A. J., Joyce, C. R. B., and Scott, D. F. (1970). ‘Persistent behavioural and electroencephalographic changes after single doses of nitrazepam and amylobarbitone sodium.’ British Medical Journal, 2, 762–5.Google Scholar
Speirs, C. F., Virden, S., and Scott, D. F. (1972). ‘A simultaneous plasma level and EEG assessment of an oral hypnotic (Ethinamate).’ European Journal of Pharmacology, 20, 127–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.