History and current status of sedative-hypnotic drug use and abuse.

Sedative-hypnotic drug use and abuse increased in Europe after World War II and peaked about 1972. Clinical and follow-up descriptions of abusers support the concept of a psychiatric addiction syndrome, different from a low-dose withdrawal syndrome. Although these drugs may be prescribed unnecessarily, large portions of the general population with pathological psychic distress and insomnia do not receive psychotropic treatment, in spite of findings pointing to genetic and biochemical factors in the genesis of these. Research on underlying mechanisms and the rationale for maintenance therapy is needed.