http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. New research suggests that for some hospitalized ICU patients on mechanical ventilators, using headphones to listen to their favorite types of music could lower anxiety and reduce their need for sedative medications. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-music-therapy-anxiety-sedatives-patients.html Psychology & Psychiatry Mon, 20 May 2013 14:00:04 EST news288273926 After surrendering its supply of a lethal injection drug to federal agents in 2011, Arkansas turned to a somewhat surprising place to look for another drug: a list from lawyers for several death row inmates. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-state-lethal-drug.html Other Sat, 20 Apr 2013 07:03:41 EST news285660211 Commonly prescribed sleeping pills/sedatives may increase the risk of contracting pneumonia by as much as 50% and increase the risk of dying from it, suggests research published online in the journal Thorax. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-widely-sedativessleeping-pills-linked-fatal.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Wed, 05 Dec 2012 18:30:02 EST news273947791 For critically ill patients receiving mechanical ventilation, daily sedation interruption did not reduce the duration of mechanical ventilation or appear to offer any benefit to patients, and may have increased both sedation and analgesic use and nurse workload, according to a study appearing in JAMA. The study is being published early online to coincide with its presentation at the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine Annual Congress. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-daily-sedation-critically-ill-patients.html Other Wed, 17 Oct 2012 09:20:01 EST news269675759 (HealthDay) -- Alcohol or sedative use during chronic opioid therapy (COT) for non-cancer pain puts patients at risk for adverse events such as respiratory depression or sedation, and the risk of concurrent use of central nervous system (CNS) depressants is not limited to patients with a history of substance abuse, according to a study published in the March issue of The Journal of Pain. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-alcohol-opioids-common-abuse.html Addiction Mon, 16 Apr 2012 17:25:11 EST news253815902 The results of two randomized trials indicate that among intensive care unit (ICU) patients receiving prolonged mechanical ventilation, use of the sedative dexmedetomidine was not inferior (outcome not worse than treatment compared to) to the standard sedatives midazolam and propofol in maintaining light to moderate sedation; also, dexmedetomidine reduced the duration of mechanical ventilation compared with midazolam, and improved patients' ability to communicate pain compared with the other drugs, according to a study in the March 21 issue of JAMA. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-sedative-duration-mechanical-ventilation-comfort.html Other Tue, 20 Mar 2012 16:27:03 EST news251479594 A woman born without arms or legs on Monday won the right to have the class action she is leading against the firms behind thalidomide, a sedative blamed for birth defects, proceed in Australia. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-australian-woman-thalidomide-court.html Other Mon, 19 Dec 2011 05:00:02 EST news243492804