Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0023380 (lethargy)
 5,697 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Animal studies and the original study comparing buspirone with diazepam and placebo indicated that sedative-hypnotic side effects and impairment in psychomotor function would be less with buspirone than with diazepam. This was borne out by the present double-blind study in which almost 700 patients received buspirone. Mean daily doses were buspirone, 20 mg; diazepam, 20 mg; and clorazepate, 24 mg. Sedation, lethargy, and depression were significantly less with buspirone than with diazepam or clorazepate and were comparable to placebo. There was no indication that other types of side effects would differ significantly from those seen with the benzodiazepines. Nervousness, headache, and dizziness were experienced more frequently with buspirone than with placebo.
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PMID:The side effect profile of buspirone in comparison to active controls and placebo. 613 65

50% of hospitalized medical emergency cases are cardiological and respiratory emergencies. Myocardial infarction, cardiogenic shock, ventricular arrhythmias and left ventricular failure often cause sudden death occurring within 1 or 2 hours. Therefore immediate management is necessary already in the prehospital phase of cardiovascular events. This does also apply for acute respiratory failure due to obstructive ventilatory disorders. Acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease frequently are masked and may be misinterpreted as encephalopathy or alcohol withdrawal syndrome. Sedation may be dangerous. Also neuroglucopenic syndrome and hyperosmolar coma are occasionally interpreted wrongly. Thyrotoxic crisis, adrenal crisis and hypercalcemia are characterized by lethargy, mental disturbance and weakness, by dehydration, myopathy, nausea, constipation, diarrhea or tenesms or arrhythmias. In this situation of varied symptoms the most important action is to think of endocrine emergency, which may have multiple etiologies.
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PMID:[Cardiovascular emergencies--endocrine and metabolic crises. Practical hints for the physician in emergency service]. 711 36

Traditional centrally acting antihypertensives have been associated with a high incidence of adverse effects and are no longer recommended as first-line therapy. The newer imidazoline receptor agonists must overcome this reputation if they are to gain recognition as potential first-line agents for hypertension. Methyldopa, a centrally acting alpha(2)-agonist, is characterized by a number of serious adverse reactions that limit its use. Although unpredictable idiosyncratic or hypersensitivity reactions are uncommon, these include hepatitis, myocarditis, and hemolytic anaemia. Less serious problems such as abnormal liver function tests, positive Coombs test, drug-induced fever, and pancreatitis also occur. Central side effects include drowsiness, fatigue, lethargy, sedation, depression, psychotic reactions, nasal stuffiness, impotence, and exacerbation of Parkinsonism. In hypertensive men, methyldopa is less well tolerated than either captopril or propranolol, and up to 20% of patients discontinue therapy because of adverse effects. Clonidine acts primarily as an alpha(2)-agonist but also acts as an agonist at imidazoline receptors in the rostroventrolateral medulla. It is equipotent to most other antihypertensives but is considerably less well-tolerated in comparative trials. The principal adverse effects of clonidine are drowsiness, sedation, lethargy and dry mouth. Reserpine acts primarily by depleting central catecholamine neurotransmitter stores. It was very extensively used in early hypertension trials, but its central side effects of sedation, nasal stuffiness, and severe depression are now considered so undesirable that the drug is seldom prescribed. The imidazoline (I1) agonists moxonidine and rilmenidine act selectively and have very little central alpha(2)-agonist activity. In comparative studies against placebo and other reference antihypertensives, the only adverse effect consistently associated with these drugs was dry mouth (approximate placebo-corrected incidence 10%). Sedation was not pronounced. Withdrawal syndromes are complex pathophysiologic processes and occur with a variety of antihypertensive drugs. Cessation of therapy with clonidine and, to a lesser extent, methyldopa may result in a severe withdrawal syndrome characterized by restlessness, sweating, anxiety, tremor, palpitations, and headache. There may be a rapid rise in blood pressure, often with a true "rebound" to higher than pretreatment levels. Plasma and urinary catecholamine levels are increased, and fatalities have been reported. It is important to stress that such a syndrome has not been recorded, in animal or human studies, with either moxonidine or rilmenidine.
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PMID:Aspects of tolerability of centrally acting antihypertensive drugs. 887 99

Songbirds have emerged as attractive model systems in many areas of biological research. Notably, songbirds are used in studies of the neurobiological and neuroendocrine mechanisms that shape vocal communication, and zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) are the most commonly studied species. In these studies, some form of chemical restraint is often needed to facilitate procedures and to minimize the risk of injury during handling. To determine the minimum dose of the benzodiazepine diazepam that is adequate to achieve deep sedation across individual birds, a low dose (5 mg/kg) and a high dose (10 mg/kg) was administered intramuscularly to 20 zebra finches. Results showed that a 10 mg/kg dose of diazepam resulted in deep sedation, defined by dorsal recumbency, which was achieved in minutes and lasted for several hours. Sedation was induced without complication, because no birds displayed signs of distress during sedation or lethargy after recovery, and was adequate to permit minimally invasive surgical procedures. In addition, the duration of sedation was dose dependent, which provides additional information for researchers who seek to match the depth of sedation to their experimental requirements. Finally, complete recovery from the deeply sedated state was induced by a 0.3 mg/kg dose of the antagonist flumazenil, which enabled birds to more rapidly resume homeostatic behaviors to promote well-being and survival. Together, these results indicate that diazepam is a safe and reliable sedative for use in zebra finches and support specific recommendations to achieve rapid and reliable sedation and recovery.
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PMID:Rapid and reliable sedation induced by diazepam and antagonized by flumazenil in zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata). 2287 79