Home > Encyclopedia of Science > Tranquilizer

• Major and minor tranquilizers
• Major tranquilizers for psychoses
• Words to Know
• Minor tranquilizers for anxiety
• Not a cure

A tranquilizer is a drug that acts on the central nervous system and is used to calm, decrease anxiety, or help a person to sleep. Often called depressants because they suppress the central nervous system and slow the body down, they are used to treat mental illness as well as common anxiety and sleeplessness. Available only by prescription, they can cause dependence and certain ones can easily be abused.

Major and minor tranquilizers

There are two types or classes of tranquilizers: major tranquilizers and minor tranquilizers. The former...