More recently the benzodiazepine receptor
agonists (BZRAs) class of compounds was developed
and garnered widespread acceptance as the standard of
practice7
. This was primarily due to the fact that they
did not possess the negative attributes of the other
sedative-hypnotic classes, though concerns about
tolerance and dose escalation remain to a lesser extent.
All of these agents(zolpidem, zolpiclone, zaleplon, and
eszopiclone) bind at benzodiazepine receptor sites, do
so more selectively than other exogenous ligands, and
inhibit cortical neurotransmission