Medical Questions & Answers

Question: What are tranquillisers? The chemist told me that the pills my doctor prescribed for my problem were this type of drug. Are they dangerous?
Serepax, Valium, Ativan, Murelax, Frisium, Xanax, Ducene. These are just a few of the trade names for the tranquillisers marketed in Australia by several pharmaceutical companies. Tranquillisers, or anxiolytics (anti-anxiety drugs) are excellent medications if used correctly. Unfortunately, they have received bad press in recent years because of their abuse by a small number of patients.
Tranquillisers are designed to control the stress associated with short term crises in a person’s life. Loss of job, death in the family, marriage problems, trouble at work, disobedient teenage children, financial shortfalls—the list of stresses experienced in modern life goes on and on. If these problems are causing a patient to have sleepless nights, lose concentration, become tearful, temperamental or just feel that they can’t cope, a course of tranquillisers over a few weeks can enable them to see their problems in a more reasonable light and work to overcome them.
Doctors are very much aware of prescribing these products correctly to avoid their long term potential for dependence.

Question: Can you tell me about a drug called Sinemet? My husband has been taking it for years, and I don’t know why.
This medication is used for only one purposes—the treatment of Parkinson’s disease.
The tablet actually contains two medications, which work together to control the stiffness, tremor and mental deterioration that can accompany this disease. It is important to remember that there is no cure for Parkinson’s disease, only control, so the tablets must be taken for long periods. If they are stopped, the symptoms of the disease may return, and a person who is well controlled may deteriorate rapidly. Unfortunately, the disease tends to worsen with time, so often the dosage of medication must be slowly increased, or other drugs added to maintain control.
It is a very safe drug, and there are no problems in using it long term. Any side effects are usually experienced in the first few weeks of treatment, and then subside. If your husband ever sees a doctor or dentist for any treatment, he must make the practitioner aware that he is taking Sinemet, as it can interact with other medications, and can cause problems with general anaesthesia and some diseases.

Popularity: 27%

Filed under: Alternative Medicine