Tranquilizers - Antidepressant Drugs for Life - Practice Questions & MCQ

Tranquilizers are a class of chemical compounds used for the treatment of stress and mild or even severe mental diseases. These relieve anxiety, stress, irritability or excitement by inducing a sense of well-being. They form an essential component of sleeping pills.

There are various types of tranquilizers. They function by different mechanisms. For example, noradrenaline is one of the neurotransmitters that plays a role in mood changes. If the level of
noradrenaline is low for some reason, then the signal-sending activity becomes low, and the person suffers from depression. In such situations, antidepressant drugs are required. These
drugs inhibit the enzymes which catalyse the degradation of noradrenaline. Iproniazid and phenelzine are two such drugs.

Some tranquilizers namely, chlordiazepoxide and meprobamate, are relatively mild tranquilizers suitable for relieving tension. Equanil is used in controlling depression and hypertension.

Derivatives of barbituric acid viz., veronal, amytal, nembutal, luminal and seconal constitute an important class of tranquilizers. These derivatives are called barbiturates. Barbiturates are hypnotic, i.e., sleep-producing agents.

Some other substances used as tranquilizers are valium and serotonin.