Zopiclone
Zopiclone was developed and first introduced in 1986 by Rhône-Poulenc S.A., now part of Sanofi-Aventis, the main worldwide manufacturer. Initially, it was promoted as an improvement on benzodiazepines, but a recent meta-analysis found it was no better than benzodiazepines in any of the aspects assessed. On April 4, 2005, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration listed zopiclone under schedule IV, due to evidence that the drug has addictive properties similar to benzodiazepines.
Obstetric anesthesiology
The isolation of morphine in the early 1800s was yet another milestone in obstetric anesthesia. However, the drug would not be widely used until the invention of the hypodermic needle in the 1850s. The first to use a hypodermic syringe in the United States was Fordyce Barker, who actually received the syringe from H.J Simpson as a gift during a visit to Edinburgh. Eventually, the use of morphine for pain control during labor lost favor due to its effects of respiratory depression in the newborn and was replaced largely by meperidine, a synthetic narcotic, first made in Germany in 1939, that had less of an effect on respiratory depression. Meperidine is still popular in obstetrics today.