Nitrazepam, sold under the brand name Mogadon among others,is a hypnotic drug of the benzodiazepine class used for short-term relief from severe, disabling anxiety and insomnia.It also has sedative (calming) properties,as well as amnestic (inducing forgetfulness), anticonvulsant, and skeletal muscle relaxant effects.

It was first synthesized in the late 1950s by a team of researchers at Hoffmann-La Roche in Switzerland.It was patented in 1961 and came into medical use in 1965.

Medical use

Nitrazepam is used to treat short-term sleeping problems (insomnia), namely difficulty falling asleep, frequent awakening, early awakening, or a combination of each.

Nitrazepam is sometimes tried to treat epilepsy when other medications fail. It has been found to be more effective than clonazepam in the treatment of West syndrome, which is an age-dependent epilepsy, affecting the very young. In uncontrolled studies, nitrazepam has shown effectiveness in infantile spasms and is sometimes considered when other anti-seizure drugs have failed.^[9However, drowsiness, hypotonia, and most significantly tolerance to anti-seizure effects typically develop with long-term treatment, generally limiting Nitrazepam to acute seizure management.^[10]

A light-activated derivative of nitrazepam (fulgazepam) has been developed for research purposes