As noted above, members of the benzodiazepine group are the drugs most commonly used to treat anxiety. When medication is considered appropriate, they are considered the drugs of choice to assist in the short-term treatment of sleep problems. They are safer, have fewer interactions with other drugs, and have a lower abuse potential than the barbiturates and other available drugs. The effects of the benzodiazepine drugs are included above in the introduction and in the discussion of the tranquillizers. They are also used to prevent and treat epileptic seizures and some are used to induce and maintain surgical anesthesia.
Larger doses cause greater depression of the body and can result in death from respiratory arrest.
The long-term effects of taking barbiturates are similar to those of other nervous system depressants such as alcohol and the tranquillizers. As tolerance develops, commonly prescribed doses become less and less effective in helping induce sleep. As a result, users tend to increase the amount taken. This practice can be dangerous because tolerance to the intoxicating effects develops more rapidly than does tolerance to the lethal effects. If very high doses are taken, death can result.