Okay. In this video, we are going to start in on our nervous system medications,
and we will first talk about medications that are used for mental health disorders. So if
you are following along with cards, I'm on card 55 in our Pharmacology Flashcards Edition 2.0.
Alright. Let's start with talking about medications that can be used to treat anxiety.
One such class are benzodiazepines. So medications that fall within this class include lorazepam,
diazepam, midazolam, as well as chlordiazepoxide. A lot of these end in that -pam, but obviously
chlordiazepoxide does not, but it does have that -diaze- which helps you to remember that
it falls within the class of benzodiazepines. So benzodiazepines can be used to treat anxiety.
They can also be used to treat alcohol withdrawal, muscle spasms, seizures, and they are also used in
the induction and maintenance of anesthesia. The mode of action of benzodiazepines
is to increase the effect of GABA in the central nervous system.
There are some serious side effects with this class of medication, which
can include sedation, respiratory depression, as well as amnesia, and dependency, and withdrawal.
So these medications are not designed for long-term use. So short-term use only is
recommended, and we never want to have our patient abruptly discontinue the use of benzodiazepines.
It's also very important to know what the antidote is for benzodiazepines, which is flumazenil.
So it is not naloxone or Narcan, which is the antidote for opioid analgesics. It is
flumazenil. So I would definitely remember that. And then my little silly way to remember this is
that Pam has anxiety, and she takes lorazepam for that anxiety. However, she does not drive
her Benz anymore, her Mercedes Benz, because of the sedating effect of benzodiazepines.
Now let's talk about another medication that is used for anxiety, which is buspirone or
Buspar is the brand name. Buspirone can be used for anxiety, as well as OCD and PTSD.
It works by binding to serotonin and dopamine receptors in the brain,
and it also increases norepinephrine metabolism. So side effects are definitely more minor
than what we saw with benzodiazepines. They can include dizziness, nausea, and headache.
Sedation is usually not a problem with buspirone. So for a patient who needs to use an anti-anxiety
medication long term, this is definitely a better choice than benzodiazepines.
However, keep in mind that it takes several weeks before the patient feels
the full effects of buspirone, so they're not going to take one pill and immediately
feel better. It's going to take several weeks. Also, you want to counsel your patient that they
should always take the medication with food or always take it without food to prevent a change
in the absorption of buspirone. Also, grapefruit juice is
contraindicated with this medication. So my little tip for remembering this
is if you take a bus to a pier and sit there quietly, it will help to ease your anxiety,
just like the effects of buspirone. Okay, so that's it for our anxiety-only
medications that I'm going to go through. In my next video, we will talk about depression
medications, and then in the following video, we'll talk about some medications that are used
for both anxiety and depression. Thanks so much for watching!