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The main clinical drugs for insomnia are the positive allosteric modulator of the GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid) A receptors (GABAARs) at the benzodiazepine site with selectivity of the GABA-\u03b11 receptor. They are divided into benzodiazepine drugs and non-benzodiazepine drugs. Most recently, the first partial positive allosteric modulator of GABAAR Dimdazenil was approved by National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) and launched in China. This review summarized the mechanism of actions of current clinical drugs for insomnia, and the clinical applications of these drugs, which may help to understand their involvement in insomnia, and to search for more selective and potent ligands to be used in the treatment of insomnia.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3389\/fphar.2024.1432726","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,11,4]],"date-time":"2024-11-04T23:50:58Z","timestamp":1730764258000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":9,"title":["Progress in GABAA receptor agonists for insomnia disorder"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"15","author":[{"given":"Weiyi","family":"Wang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Wanting","family":"Fu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Hongyan","family":"Zhu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jing","family":"Ma","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jian","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jia","family":"Qi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,11,5]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"19","DOI":"10.1016\/0740-5472(91)90023-4","article-title":"Protracted withdrawal syndromes from benzodiazepines","volume":"8","author":"Ashton","year":"1991","journal-title":"J. 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