Wallace B. Mendelson | |
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Born | 1945 (age 79–80) |
Education | University of Texas at Austin (BA) Washington University in St. Louis (MD) |
Occupations |
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Medical career | |
Institutions | |
Research |
Wallace B. Mendelson is an American psychiatrist and author, working primarily in the fields of sleep research and psychopharmacology. He most recently worked at the University of Chicago as a professor of psychiatry and clinical pharmacology and the director of the school's Sleep Research Laboratory. He is the author of sixteen books and numerous papers in the fields of sleep science, pharmacology and history of science.
Mendelson earned his Bachelor of Arts in 1965 from the University of Texas at Austin. He then went on to Washington University in St. Louis where he earned his Doctor of Medicine in 1969. He completed his residency in psychiatry and taught at Washington University. [1]
After Washington University, in 1975 Mendelson took a position at the Intramural Program of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) in Bethesda, Maryland where he was the Chief, Section on Sleep Studies until 1987. [2] [3] While with the NIMH, Mendelson published two books: Human Sleep and Its Disorders (1977) [4] and The Use and Misuse of Sleeping Pills (1980). [5] After the NIMH, Mendelson became the director [6] of the Center for the Study of Sleep and Waking at the State University of New York at Stony Brook [7] and held a professorship there. [8] He also published his third book while at Stony Brook called Human Sleep: Research and Clinical Care in 1987. [9] In 1994, he was named the director of the Sleep Disorders Center at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio. [10]
From 1997 to 1998, Mendelson served as the President of the Sleep Research Society. [11] He began working at the University of Chicago [12] as a professor of psychiatry and clinical pharmacology and the director of the Sleep Research Laboratory. [8] He retired from full-time university work in the early 2000s and has subsequently been writing, consulting, and in the part-time practice of general psychiatry. [13] [14] During his tenures at Stony Brook, the Cleveland Clinic, and The University of Chicago, he set up three accredited fellowship training programs in sleep medicine. [15] Since 2017, Mendelson published a number of books, including The Science of Sleep, [14] Understanding Antidepressants, [16] Understanding Sleeping Pills, [17] Understanding Medicines for Anxiety, [18] The Curious History of Medicines in Psychiatry, [19] Molecules, Madness, and Malaria, [20] Nepenthe's Children, [21] Trial by Fire, [22] Fragile Brilliance, [23] The Psychoanalyst and The Nazi Nobelist, [24] The Battle Over the Butterflies of the Soul, [25] From Despair to Discovery [26] and Pharmacy of the Mind [27]
Mendelson is known for basic science studies elucidating the effects of inverse agonists of the benzodiazepine receptor, [28] the actions of endogenous ligands for benzodiazepine receptors, [29] and the role of the medial preoptic area in pharmacologic sleep induction. [30] At a human research level he characterized differences in regulation of growth hormone secretion during sleep and waking, [31] effects of drugs on the perception of being awake or asleep, [32] the interaction of sleep and depression, [33] and the clinical properties of sleep-inducing medicines. [34] Mendelson has been described as a "pioneer in the field of sleep research and sleep medicine, and is a well-respected psychiatrist, scientist, and sleep educator." [35] In 2022 he was designated a ‘Living Legend in Sleep Research’ by the journal Sleep Advances [36] in which he published a history of his work, memories of colleagues and mentors, and thoughts for the future. [37]
Year | Title | Original publisher | ISBN | Notes |
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1977 | Human Sleep and Its Disorders | Plenum Press | ISBN 978-1468422917 | Co-written with J. Christian Gillin and Richard Jed Wyatt |
1980 | The Use and Misuse of Sleeping Pills | Plenum Medical Book Company | ISBN 978-0306403705 | |
1987 | Human Sleep: Research and Clinical Care | ISBN 978-0306426278 | ||
2017 | The Science of Sleep: What It Is, How It Works, and Why It Matters | University of Chicago Press | ISBN 978-0226387161 | |
2018 | Understanding Antidepressants | Independent | ISBN 978-1980438298 | |
Understanding Sleeping Pills | ISBN 978-1718039988 | |||
2019 | Understanding Medicines for Anxiety | ISBN 978-1075931802 | ||
2020 | The Curious History of Medicines in Psychiatry | Pythagoras Press | ISBN 978-0578637877 | |
Molecules, Madness, and Malaria: How Victorian Fabric Dyes Evolved into Modern Medicines for Mental Illness and Infectious Disease | ISBN 978-0578697208 | |||
Nepenthe's Children: The History of the Discoveries of Medicines for Sleep and Anesthesia | ISBN 978-1735334318 | |||
2021 | Trial by Fire: World War II and the Founders of Modern Neuroscience and Psychopharmacology | ISBN 978-1-7353343-7-0 | ||
Fragile Brilliance: The Troubled Lives of Herman Melville, Edgar Allan Poe, Emily Dickinson and other Great Authors | ISBN 978-1-7353343-6-3 | |||
2022 | The Psychoanalyst and The Nazi Nobelist: The Curious Story of Sigmund Freud and Julius Wagner-Jauregg | ISBN 978-1-7353343-5-6 | ||
2023 | The Battle Over the Butterflies of the Soul: Camillo Golgi, Santiago Ramón y Cajal and The Birth of Neuroscience | ISBN 978-1-7353343-8-7 | ||
2024 | From Despair to Discovery: The Botanical Odyssey of Matthias Jakob Schleiden and The Dawn of Cell Theory | ISBN 978-1-7353343-9-4 | ||
2025 | Pharmacy of the Mind: The Uncanny Origins of Psychiatric Drugs, and The World That Shaped Them | ISBN 979-8-9913210-0-6 |
An anxiolytic is a medication or other intervention that reduces anxiety. This effect is in contrast to anxiogenic agents which increase anxiety. Anxiolytic medications are used for the treatment of anxiety disorders and their related psychological and physical symptoms.
Benzodiazepines, colloquially known as "benzos", are a class of depressant drugs whose core chemical structure is the fusion of a benzene ring and a diazepine ring. They are prescribed to treat conditions such as anxiety disorders, insomnia, and seizures. The first benzodiazepine, chlordiazepoxide (Librium), was discovered accidentally by Leo Sternbach in 1955, and was made available in 1960 by Hoffmann–La Roche, which followed with the development of diazepam (Valium) three years later, in 1963. By 1977, benzodiazepines were the most prescribed medications globally; the introduction of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), among other factors, decreased rates of prescription, but they remain frequently used worldwide.
Hypnotic, or soporific drugs, commonly known as sleeping pills, are a class of psychoactive drugs whose primary function is to induce sleep and to treat insomnia (sleeplessness).
Insomnia, also known as sleeplessness, is a sleep disorder where people have trouble sleeping. They may have difficulty falling asleep, or staying asleep for as long as desired. Insomnia is typically followed by daytime sleepiness, low energy, irritability, and a depressed mood. It may result in an increased risk of accidents of all kinds as well as problems focusing and learning. Insomnia can be short term, lasting for days or weeks, or long term, lasting more than a month. The concept of the word insomnia has two distinct possibilities: insomnia disorder (ID) or insomnia symptoms, and many abstracts of randomized controlled trials and systematic reviews often underreport on which of these two possibilities the word refers to.
Temazepam, sold under the brand name Restoril among others, is a medication of the benzodiazepine class which is generally used to treat severe or debilitating insomnia. It is taken by mouth. Temazepam is rapidly absorbed, and significant hypnotic and anxiolytic effects begin in less than 30 minutes and can last for up to eight hours. Prescriptions for hypnotics such as temazepam have seen a dramatic decrease since 2010, while anxiolytics such as alprazolam, clonazepam, and lorazepam have increased or remained stable. Temazepam and similar hypnotics, such as triazolam (Halcion) are generally reserved for severe and debilitating insomnia. They have largely been replaced by z-drugs and atypical antidepressants as first line treatment for insomnia.
Fluvoxamine, sold under the brand name Luvox among others, is an antidepressant of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) class. It is primarily used to treat major depressive disorder and, perhaps more-especially, obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD), but is also used to treat anxiety disorders such as panic disorder, social anxiety disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Alprazolam, sold under the brand name Xanax among others, is a fast-acting, potent tranquilizer of moderate duration within the triazolobenzodiazepine group of chemicals called benzodiazepines. Alprazolam is most commonly prescribed in the management of anxiety disorders, especially panic disorder and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). Other uses include the treatment of chemotherapy-induced nausea, together with other treatments. GAD improvement occurs generally within a week. Alprazolam is generally taken orally.
A sedative or tranquilliser is a substance that induces sedation by reducing irritability or excitement. They are CNS depressants and interact with brain activity causing its deceleration. Various kinds of sedatives can be distinguished, but the majority of them affect the neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA). In spite of the fact that each sedative acts in its own way, most produce relaxing effects by increasing GABA activity.
Zolpidem, sold under the brand name Ambien among others, is a medication primarily used for the short-term treatment of sleeping problems. Guidelines recommend that it be used only after cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia and after behavioral changes, such as sleep hygiene, have been tried. It decreases the time to sleep onset by about fifteen minutes and at larger doses helps people stay asleep longer. It is taken by mouth and is available as conventional tablets, extended-release tablets, or sublingual tablets.
Triazolam, sold under the brand name Halcion among others, is a central nervous system (CNS) depressant tranquilizer of the triazolobenzodiazepine (TBZD) class, which are benzodiazepine (BZD) derivatives. It possesses pharmacological properties similar to those of other benzodiazepines, but it is generally only used as a sedative to treat severe insomnia. In addition to the hypnotic properties, triazolam's amnesic, anxiolytic, sedative, anticonvulsant, and muscle relaxant properties are pronounced as well.
Clonazepam, sold under the brand name Klonopin among others, is a benzodiazepine medication used to prevent and treat anxiety disorders, seizures, bipolar mania, agitation associated with psychosis, obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD), and akathisia. It is a long-acting tranquilizer of the benzodiazepine class. It possesses anxiolytic, anticonvulsant, sedative, hypnotic, and skeletal muscle relaxant properties. It is typically taken orally but is also used intravenously. Effects begin within one hour and last between eight and twelve hours in adults.
Flurazepam is a drug which is a benzodiazepine derivative. It possesses anxiolytic, anticonvulsant, hypnotic, sedative and skeletal muscle relaxant properties. It produces a metabolite with a long half-life, which may stay in the bloodstream for days. Flurazepam was patented in 1968 and came into medical use the same year. Flurazepam, developed by Roche Pharmaceuticals, was one of the first benzodiazepine hypnotic medications to be marketed.
Zaleplon, sold under the brand name Sonata among others, is a sedative and hypnotic which is used to treat insomnia. It is a nonbenzodiazepine or Z-drug of the pyrazolopyrimidine class. It was developed by King Pharmaceuticals and approved for medical use in the United States in 1999.
Nonbenzodiazepines, sometimes referred to colloquially as Z-drugs, are a class of psychoactive, depressant, sedative, hypnotic, anxiolytic drugs that are benzodiazepine-like in uses, such as for treating insomnia and anxiety.
Quazepam, sold under the brand name Doral among others, is a relatively long-acting benzodiazepine derivative drug developed by the Schering Corporation in the 1970s. Quazepam is used for the treatment of insomnia, including sleep induction and sleep maintenance. Quazepam induces impairment of motor function and has relatively selective hypnotic and anticonvulsant properties with considerably less overdose potential than other benzodiazepines. Quazepam is an effective hypnotic which induces and maintains sleep without disruption of the sleep architecture.
Estazolam, sold under the brand name Prosom among others, is a tranquilizer medication of the triazolobenzodiazepine (TBZD) class, which are benzodiazepines (BZDs) fused with a triazole ring. It possesses anxiolytic, anticonvulsant, hypnotic, sedative and skeletal muscle relaxant properties. Estazolam is an intermediate-acting oral benzodiazepine. It is used for short-term treatment of insomnia.
Acamprosate, sold under the brand name Campral, is a medication which reduces alcoholism cravings. It is thought to stabilize chemical signaling in the brain that would otherwise be disrupted by alcohol withdrawal. When used alone, acamprosate is not an effective therapy for alcohol use disorder in most individuals, as it only addresses withdrawal symptoms and not psychological dependence. It facilitates a reduction in alcohol consumption as well as full abstinence when used in combination with psychosocial support or other drugs that address the addictive behavior.
Etizolam is a thienodiazepine derivative which is a benzodiazepine analog. The etizolam molecule differs from a benzodiazepine in that the benzene ring has been replaced by a thiophene ring and triazole ring has been fused, making the drug a thienotriazolodiazepine.
Benzodiazepine withdrawal syndrome is the cluster of signs and symptoms that may emerge when a person who has been taking benzodiazepines as prescribed develops a physical dependence on them and then reduces the dose or stops taking them without a safe taper schedule.
The effects of long-term benzodiazepine use include drug dependence as well as the possibility of adverse effects on cognitive function, physical health, and mental health. Long-term use is sometimes described as use not shorter than three months. Benzodiazepines are generally effective when used therapeutically in the short term, but even then the risk of dependency can be significantly high. There are significant physical, mental and social risks associated with the long-term use of benzodiazepines. Although anxiety can temporarily increase as a withdrawal symptom, there is evidence that a reduction or withdrawal from benzodiazepines can lead to a reduction of anxiety symptoms in the long run. Due to these increasing physical and mental symptoms from long-term use of benzodiazepines, slow withdrawal is recommended for long-term users. Not everyone, however, experiences problems with long-term use.
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