Hi Alok,

Drugs are classified in two ways and the names that are given to the different classes of drugs depends on their target audience.

1. When they are targeted at practitioners, such as doctors and pharmacists, they are classified by the kind of symptoms that they purport to alleviate. The classes that you have mentioned fall into this category. So, for example, anxiolytics are marketed as suitable for treating anxiety, whilst hypnotics are marketed as being suitable for treating sleep disorders. Of course, someone may be having sleep problems because they have something on their mind that is making them worry (anxious) so much that they can't sleep. If the doctor perceives the relationship to be this way around, they would prescribe an anxiolytic, expecting the sleep disorder to be helped also. On the other hand, if the doctor thinks that the excessive anxiety is a result of the patient not being able think their problems through properly because of their sleep problem, he or she may prescribe hypnotics instead. In some cases, practitioner may consider these as two separate problems ad prescribe both types of medication at the same time, although this is not the procedure of choice.

2. Pharmacologists and those involved with medical research (and others interested in how medicines do what they do) classify drugs on the basis of their mode of action. For example, there is a class of drugs called SSRIs (Selective Serotonin Reuptake inhibitors) which are marketed as antidepressants. However, they are also used to treat anxiety disorders, stress disorders, even eating disorders.

In your question you refer to pointing "towards the same activity". The term activity can have different meanings. On the one hand, mental disorders are currently diagnosed on the basis of what the person says they feel or think (mental activity) and on how they behave (physical activity). On the other hand, medical practitioners refer to mental activity to mean what the brain is doing (for example, by using various imaging techniques). To complicate matters, there is a third kind of activity which refers to the effect that a drug has on its target cells (pharmacological activity).

When you later talk about 'antioxidant' activity, you are moving towards the realm of pharmacological activity, but indirectly since antioxidants do not have any particular 'target' cells. As such, they are not used to treat any problems. Their function, I think is going to need to have to be the subject of a different thread!

Thes terms are more related to psychiatric disorders than neurological diseases. In some cases, named as neuropsychiatric diseases. Life style is very important i.e., environmental factors than genatic factors. Thus, some biochemical in certain areas of brain are changed (neurotransmitters system , activity and sites). so, pharmacologically, there are certain drugs act on both of them depending on the doses, in low dose is antianxiety in high dose is hypnotic as diazepam. So, the terms are very different in clinical and basic aspects. The difference can be diagnosed on behavioural basis and human differs for animals.

These are all very different things. Anxiolytics tend to be compounds which affect GABA receptors, while antidepressants more often target monoamine systems (5HT, dopamine, noradrenaline). Sedatives and hypnotics are a very broad class of drugs which promote sleep and could include benzodiazepines (GABA), melatonin, antihistamines, and even morphine (opioid system). The concept of 'adaptogens' is not a very well recognised one (in Western medicine, at any rate). Any basic textbook on neuropharmacology should help you in understanding this kind of thing.

Though these terminologies are of different means, many people are interchanging these words, even health care professionals. Anxiolytic mainly decreases anxiety by acting on inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA action. Whereas antidepressant mainly act on serotonin and in few cases dopamine and nor epinephrine. Sedative causes drowsiness and in high concentration when they cause sleep, we called them as hypnotic. Adaptogenic, though not widely used in practice helps to adapt the given environment. If you exactly wish to search the definition, better to follow Medline dictionary or WHO definitions.

It is important to distinguish between antidepressants designed to treat the main cause of insomnia, pathological anxiety and adaptation troubles of symptomatic treatments of consequences.

It must be underlined that the neurotransmiters theory is obsolete and probably only an epiphenomenon. The mechanism of efficiency of the different antidepressants seems to be intracellular neuroprotectors like BDNF.

Hi Alok,

Drugs are classified in two ways and the names that are given to the different classes of drugs depends on their target audience.

1. When they are targeted at practitioners, such as doctors and pharmacists, they are classified by the kind of symptoms that they purport to alleviate. The classes that you have mentioned fall into this category. So, for example, anxiolytics are marketed as suitable for treating anxiety, whilst hypnotics are marketed as being suitable for treating sleep disorders. Of course, someone may be having sleep problems because they have something on their mind that is making them worry (anxious) so much that they can't sleep. If the doctor perceives the relationship to be this way around, they would prescribe an anxiolytic, expecting the sleep disorder to be helped also. On the other hand, if the doctor thinks that the excessive anxiety is a result of the patient not being able think their problems through properly because of their sleep problem, he or she may prescribe hypnotics instead. In some cases, practitioner may consider these as two separate problems ad prescribe both types of medication at the same time, although this is not the procedure of choice.

2. Pharmacologists and those involved with medical research (and others interested in how medicines do what they do) classify drugs on the basis of their mode of action. For example, there is a class of drugs called SSRIs (Selective Serotonin Reuptake inhibitors) which are marketed as antidepressants. However, they are also used to treat anxiety disorders, stress disorders, even eating disorders.

In your question you refer to pointing "towards the same activity". The term activity can have different meanings. On the one hand, mental disorders are currently diagnosed on the basis of what the person says they feel or think (mental activity) and on how they behave (physical activity). On the other hand, medical practitioners refer to mental activity to mean what the brain is doing (for example, by using various imaging techniques). To complicate matters, there is a third kind of activity which refers to the effect that a drug has on its target cells (pharmacological activity).

When you later talk about 'antioxidant' activity, you are moving towards the realm of pharmacological activity, but indirectly since antioxidants do not have any particular 'target' cells. As such, they are not used to treat any problems. Their function, I think is going to need to have to be the subject of a different thread!

Generally it is believed that the reactive oxygen species (ROS) can cause a degeneration of neurons. So I included antioxidant activity in this case. A good antioxidant is supposed to counteract this mechanism and hence support antidepressant or anxiolytic action also. As I see some experts also pointed to consider these terms related to neuropsychiatric diseases, so antioxidant is likely to support this activities and prevent neurodegeneration. GABAergic action is also taking place through the neuronal pathways only. So i think can be related to free radical scavengers i.e. antioxidants.