A tranquillizer is a drug that calms a person’s mind. It is mostly used to reduce tension and anxiety. It does this without putting one to sleep. Unlike a sedative, it does not induce sleep. However, its tranquillizing effect may sometimes put the person to sleep. If given in the right dosages, most depressants and sedatives can act as tranquillizers.
The first member of the tranquillizer drug family was phenothiazine. This was first synthesized in the 1880s, but its potentiality remained unrecognized for nearly 70 years. In 1950, some French researchers synthesized the first widely-used tranquillizer — chlorpromazine. Chlorpromazine and its allied drugs lower the activity in certain areas of the brain that are concerned with emotions, such as the cortex, thalamus and hypothalamus. They also have a sedative effect. The benzodiazepine drugs produce a lighter tranquillizing effect and include volium and Librium.
Tranquillizers are being used for many mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and anxiety neuroses. Chlorpromazine has been used especially in the treatment of schizophrenia.
Tranquillizers are taken through mouth and enter all the body tissue. How exactly the tranquillizers work inside the body is still not very clear to physicians. They are believed to affect the transmission of nerve signals between certain nerve cells in the brain. Their side-effects include drowsiness and a tendency towards low blood pressure, palpitation, dryness of mouth and nasal stuffiness. They may also affect the liver causing jaundice or skin rashes. A very common side-effect is experienced in the form of muscular rigidity, tremors and difficulty in movements. Doctors prescribe other effective drugs along with the tranquillizers to minimize the adverse side-effects.
Doctors give tranquillizers to reduce high blood pressure also. If used in large doses over a long period of time these drugs can cause addiction.