Sedation, an unpleasant, undesirable and potentially dangerous side-effect of many psychotropic drugs.

Sedation is a property of many psychotropic drugs. It can be defined as a decrease in psychomotor and cognitive performance. Many of the earlier neuroleptic, anxiolytic, antidepressant and antihistamine drugs were extremely sedative and sedation came to be considered as an integral part of the activity of these compounds. Newer, far less sedative, examples of each of these classes have shown that sedation is not required for their efficacy. Sedation is now increasingly considered as an adverse effect which should be avoided rather than a desirable effect especially when treating disorders such as anxiety or depression. This article discusses the sedative properties and mechanisms of different classes of psychotropic drugs. Copyright 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.