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Newer Drugs for Sedation: Soft Pharmacology

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Abstract

Drugs traditionally used for sedation and anaesthesia, such as benzodiazepines, clonidine, etomidate and propofol have each some of the features of the ideal sedative for the out-of-operating room (OR) environment. However the search for the ideal sedative in this environment continues and has resulted in the development of newer agents for sedation. There is a growing interest in ‘soft pharmacology’. ‘Soft drugs’ is a term used to describe agents, often analogs of a parent compound, with a chemical configuration designed to allow rapid metabolism into inactive metabolites after exerting their desired therapeutic effect (s). ‘Soft’ sedative drugs, such as remimazolam, dexmedetomidine, etomidate analogs and fospropofol may approach the ideal out-of-OR sedative, as they can potentially offer well-controlled titratable activity and ultrashort action. The salient features of these drugs are discussed in this chapter (Table 31.1)

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anaesthesia, Cork University Hospital, Wilton, Cork, Cork, Ireland

    Janette Brohan MB, BCh, BAO

  2. Department of Anaesthesia, Intensive Care and Pain Medicine, Cork University Hospital, Wilton, Cork, Ireland

    Peter John Lee MB, BCh, BAO, FCARCSI, MD

Authors
  1. Janette Brohan MB, BCh, BAO
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  2. Peter John Lee MB, BCh, BAO, FCARCSI, MD
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Correspondence to Janette Brohan MB, BCh, BAO .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Associate Professor of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine Perelman School of Medicine, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Basavana G. Goudra

  2. All India Inst. Med. Sci. (AIIMS), New Delhi, Delhi, India

    Preet Mohinder Singh

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Brohan, J., Lee, P.J. (2017). Newer Drugs for Sedation: Soft Pharmacology. In: Goudra, B.G., Singh, P.M. (eds) Out of Operating Room Anesthesia. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-39150-2_31

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-39150-2_31

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