Tranquilisers: Drugs for Treating Anxiety, Fear, Tension, Agitation & Mind Disturbances

What Are Tranquilizers?

Tranquilisers are anti-anxiety drugs that act on your nervous system and aids in relieving the symptoms of anxiety, tension, agitation and mental disturbances. These drugs have a calming effect that is quite effective in treating stress and various mental disorders. The word tranquiliser is more often used to describe sedatives which are the substances that induce sedation.

Sedation reduces irritation or agitation by the consumption of sedative drugs or tranquillizers. These are one of the main ingredients of sleeping pills and are categorised under various drug classes based on different modes of functioning. For example, the effectiveness of tranquillizers depends upon the mode of administration, your medical history and drug class.

Tranquillizers are more likely to be abused. One can easily get addicted to them which is quite dangerous. By seeing the following symptoms you can easily diagnose if your near or dear one is abusing tranquillizer:

• Shaky hands
• Trouble concentrating
• Excessive sleepiness
• Difficulty in keeping a conversation
• Facing trouble in breathing
• Memory issues or mental confusion
• Dizziness
• Nausea

Classification Of Tranquilizers

Tranquillizers are classified under the following two categories:

Minor Tranquilizers

These are anxiolytic drugs that are primarily used to reduce anxiety. Minor tranquillizers are the most commonly used tranquillizers and have the highest potential for abuse and addiction. These include sedatives and depressant medications that tend to depress your central nervous system. These medications can be further subdivided into the following drug classes:

Antidepressants

These medications help balance the neurotransmitters in the brain, thus helping regulate both mood and anxiety. However, these medicines may cause erection issues in men. Vidalista is one of the effective pills used to treat erection problems. In addition, Vidalista is a tadalafil tablet that is found to improve erections in men.

Barbiturates

Barbiturates are commonly used to treat insomnia and anxiety. However, these are least used nowadays due to increased drug abuse and dependence and also their excessive use may slip you into a coma or may even lead to death.

Sympatholytics

Sympatholytics work on the sympathetic nervous system and are antihypertensive drugs.

Benzodiazepines

Medicines like Ativan, Valium and Xanax are among the only 15 benzodiazepines approved by the FDA and are used to treat anxiety, insomnia, seizures, muscle spasms, agitation, alcohol withdrawal, and panic attacks. However, men taking benzodiazepines are two times more likely to get difficulty in achieving erections.

Doctors suggest pills like vidalista for patients suffering from the inability to have an erection. Vidalista is a PDE5 inhibitor and hence helps in getting firm erections by stimulating the relaxation of the penile muscles and thereby increasing the blood flow to the penis.

Side Effects Of Minor Tranquilizers

Overconsumption of minor tranquillizers can lead to the following potential side effects:

• Aggression and agitation
• Dizziness
• Depression
• Fatigue
• Irritation
• Mental confusion
• Memory issues
• Lack of control on body and coordination
• Headaches
• Suicidal thoughts
• Slurred speech
• Paranoia or thought of harming yourself or others

Major Tranquilizers

Major tranquillizers are highly effective in reducing the symptoms of delusions, hallucinations, schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders. In addition, these drugs help in calming down the agitated, excited, and irrational patients. These are usually prescribed on a long term basis and help a patient to return to its normal healthy personal and social life.

Major tranquillizers are mostly categorised under the following types:

Phenothiazines

Phenothiazines include the medicines like chlorpromazine and are the most commonly prescribed major tranquillizers. They block the effect of dopamine neurotransmitters in the brain, thereby reducing psychotic symptoms. However, besides being effective, these medications can lead to some potential side effects like tremors, rigidity, restlessness, and unintended cramps of the facial muscles, tongue, and lips.

Thioxanthenes

Thioxanthene and its derivatives are used for reducing the symptoms of schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders. Their effect is similar to phenothiazine antipsychotic drugs. However, the overuse of the drugs may lead to the following serious side effects:

• Muscle twitching
• Dizziness
• Drowsiness
• Low blood pressure
• Stiff muscles
• Tremors
• Difficulty walking
• Weakness
• Depression
• Difficulty in swallowing

Clozapine

This medication belongs to the antipsychotic drug class and is used to treat a few mental conditions like schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorders. The medicine works by maintaining a balance of certain neurotransmitters in the brain. This is also effective in reducing hallucinations and suicidal thoughts in a person.

However, it may lead to a few side effects like:

• Dizziness
• Drowsiness
• Headache
• Lightheadedness
• Blurred vision
• Constipation
• Weight gain

Also, it has been found that men using clozapine may find difficulty in having or maintaining a firm and long-lasting erections. Although pills like vidalista are quite effective in improving erections in men, extra precautions need to be taken as vidalista has potential side effects and drug interactions.

Always consult your doctor before taking vidalista while having any other medication and always take vidalista as prescribed by the doctor to reduce the risk of any possible side effects.

Interaction Between Tranquilizers And Alcohol

Although it is recommended not to take alcohol while having any of the medication to reduce the risk of possible side effects, however, the risk of side effects is quite high if you combine alcohol and tranquillizers.

Both alcohol and tranquillizers are depressants that impact your central nervous system, thus affecting the normal functioning of your body, which can be life-threatening.

Tranquillizers Overdose

Overdose of any medication could be harmful but the risk is high in the case of tranquillizers. When the drug is taken in excess at once, two subsequent doses are taken at a time or too closely, when the patient body can’t handle the medications or when a fatal drug gets mixed. All these conditions lead to an overdose of tranquillizers which is quite dangerous and can lead to death.

Summary

Tranquillizers are sedatives that act on your nervous system and help in easing the symptoms of anxiety and certain mental disorders. Although they are very effective in keeping you calm and composed, yet their overuse or abuse can lead to some potential side effects that can be lethal.