The barbiturates have largely been replaced as sedatives by the benzodiazepines and other minor tranquilizers.
In the mid-20th century new types of sedative-hypnotic drugs were synthesized, chief among them the benzodiazepines (the so-called minor tranquilizers).
Drugs that combat anxiety, also known as anxiolytics or minor tranquilizers, enable otherwise dysfunctional patients to cope more effectively with the environmental or personal factors that trigger symptoms.
The barbiturates have largely been replaced as sedatives by the benzodiazepines and other minor tranquilizers, which have fewer unfavourable side effects and less abuse potential.
But with the pharmaceutical giant Roche announcing that it will soon close the Nutley, N.J., plant where Valium and its predecessor, Librium, were developed, it's a good time to remember how revolutionary these "minor tranquilizers" were half a century ago.
The authors found that among 228 general hospital patients, minor tranquilizers were prescribed most often and with the least justification and that major tranquilizers were prescribed sparingly and by and large judiciously.
Minor tranquilizers were prescribed most frequently, followed, respectively, by major tranquilizers, barbiturates, and antidepressants.
"What are the methods of treatment?" "If we speak about pure Jerusalem syndrome, we usually try to use minor tranquilizers, not serious antipsychotic medications.
"In the 1970s, everybody was looking for new minor tranquilizers, and it was easy back then to go quickly from mice to market," says Nick Rasmussen, a medical and drug historian at the University of Sydney.
In addition, researchers rarely specify which drugs they classify as "minor tranquilizers," or how they distinguish between "anxiolytics" and "sedatives".
