Uses and side effects of Restyl Tablets

Restyl  is a brand of Alprazolam manufactured in India. It is used for anxiety disorders and to induce sleep. At smaller doses it reduces anxiety and cause less drowsiness. However, it can cause fatigue and dizziness. In addition, this medication can be habit forming on long term use.

Uses of Restyl

 Restyl is mainly used to control anxiety. It can be useful medication in anxiety disorders such as Panic disorder, Social phobia and phobias. In addition, this medication has a seizure control effect. But there are other medications that are more effective for this purpose. Some use this medication to help sleeping, But medications like Zolfresh or Nitrest would serve purpose better. 

However, long term use of this medication for anxiety can become troublesome as you will need higher doses to control same anxiety. In addition, sudden discontinuation of this medication after long term use (more than three months) can cause severe reaction that may need medical attention.

Restyl 0.5mg Tablets

Usual dose of Restyl

This medication is used in the doses of 0.25mg to 1mg to control anxiety. Higher doses in the range of more than 2mg can cause significant drowsiness.

Uses and side effects of Lonazep (Brand of Clonazepam)

Uses and side effects of Manorest (Another brand of Alprazolam)

Common side effects of this medication

As mentioned earlier this medication can cause drowsiness and sedation. These side effects can go into the next day morning if you have taken this medication for sleep. It can cause problems in operating machinery and driving.

 In addition, to above side effects using this medication frequently can cause sleep problems as Restyl is known to disrupt sleep architecture. Even though you are able to sleep with this medication, it does not produce natural sleep. So you may not be feeling refreshed after the sleep.

In addition, using this medication frequently can cause depression and sometime it can cause suicidal tendencies.

Some people may lose inhibitions after using this medication and may become aggressive or show increased risk taking behavior.

In addition to above problems this medication can cause fatigue, memory loss and confusion.

List of commons side effects of Restyl

1.       Nausea

2.       Drowsiness

3.       Problems in driving and operating machinery

4.       Depression with suicidal tendencies

5.       Fatigue

6.       Memory loss

7.       Confusion

8.       Disinhibition causing aggressiveness and increased risk taking behavior

List of rare side effects

1.       Sexual difficulties

2.       Headache

3.       Urinary incontinence

4.       Difficulties in walking

What the doctor should know before prescribing?

This medication is prescription only. Therefore, you need to consult a doctor and explains your problems before getting this medication. Before getting the prescription you need to inform the doctor if you have following problems.

 If the patient has following diseases they should tell it to the doctor before taking the drug.

* Kidney disease

* Liver disease

* Breathing disorder

* Ataxia (poor control of body movements)

* Clinical depression

* Myasthenia gravis

General guidelines when you take this medication

Take the medicine at around the same time(s) every day.

Follow the directions on your prescription label carefully, and ask your doctor or pharmacist to explain any part you do not understand.

Take Restyl exactly as directed. Do not take more or less of it, or take it more often than prescribed by your doctor. Do not stop taking this without informing your doctor.

Summary

Restyl is a Indian brand of Alprazolam. Its main uses include anxiety and helping to sleep. Main side effects is drowsiness. It can become habit forming in long term use.

Even though the author of this article is a medical doctor, contents of this article are for information only. You should always consult your doctor, before starting or stopping any drug containing Alprazolam e.g. Restyl. In addition, medical information can change over time. Please ask your doctor for information on the latest studies.

Causes, symptoms and treatment of Confabulation?

Image via Wikipedia

Confabulation is falsification of memory in clear consciousness in association with an organically derived amnesia. It is a falsely retrieved memory, often containing false details within its own context.

In addition confabulations are not intentionally produced. person does not know about the existence of memory deficit. Some people may act on them, confirming the belief in the false memory.

There are two type


1. Embarrassment confabulation : – This form is momentary in nature. The person tries to cover up memory gap by an ad hoc confabulated excuses.

2. Fantastic confabulation : – The patient spontaneously describes adventurous experiences of a fantastic nature.

Confabulating patients are often suggestible. That means a mere suggestion can induce a lie. For an example, if we suggest to him that he was there at a cafe during this morning (which does not happened) then he will describe the experience as " Yes i took my breakfast and it was fine".

Confabulation usually occur in Amnesic syndrome seen among alcoholic dependent patients. It is called Korsakoff's psychosis. It usually results due to thiamine deficiency that is associated with long term alcohol abuse. In addition, it can be seen among people with neurological disorders in the brain.

Treatment of Confabulation


It is usually treated with Thiamine replacement. However, established confabulation cannot be treated effectively. Only the progression can be stopped. It can be stopped by taking regular thiamine supplementation and complete abstinence of alcohol.

Summary 

It is a primarily a memory disorder and the patients is unaware of the memory deficit. This leads to filling of memory gaps by a subconscious process that leads to believing a false memory as true. Patient genuinely believe that the false memory is true.

Further reading


Wishful reality distortions in confabulation: a case report.

Originally published in 

http://mentalhealthdoc.blogspot.com/

Improving Memory – 3 Tips to Remember Things Better

According to the Atkinson and Hilgard's  Introduction to psychology Human memory can be divided into sensory store, short term store and long term store. To memorize things you need to optimize the long term memory store. Short term store or working memory is used primarily to maintain attention and concentration. Sensory store is a large repository of crude data and it cannot be used to improve memory.







TIP 1
Understand the items you are trying to memorize. Understanding the stuff automatically create meaningful connections (Automatic backlinks ). These connections can help us to retrieve stuff.
TIP 2
Organize stuff into categories before memorizing. Most common cause for memory failure is retrieval failure or we forget the retrieval cues. By categorizing stuff before memorizing it will be easier for us to get retrieval cues.

TIP 3
If you cannot remember what you have memorize. Then try to go mentally to the place you have memorize that fact. For an example if you want to remember a friends name in your high school then go mentally to your high school or try to remember buildings, teachers, events you have attended in your high school then you will remember his/her name.
These tips are more explained in the following post
1. How memory works - What are memory stores and how to improve our memory