Barbiturates
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Barbiturates are drugs that act as central nervous system (CNS) depressants, and by virtue of this they produce a wide spectrum of effects, from mild sedation to anesthesia. Some are also used as anticonvulsants.
Barbiturates are derivatives of barbituric acid.
Medical uses
Today barbiturates are infrequently used as anticonvulsants and for the induction of anesthesia. Benzodiazepines were made as barbiturate alternatives and as such are more widely used and prescribed today than the barbiturate drugs.
These barbiturates are available in the U.S.:
Barbiturate abuse
Barbiturates were very popular in the first half of the 20th century. In moderate amounts, these drugs produce a state of intoxication that is remarkably similar to alcohol intoxication. Symptoms include slurred speech, loss of motor coordination, and impaired judgment. Depending on the dose, frequency, and duration of use, one can rapidly develop tolerance, physical dependence, and psychological dependence to barbiturates. With the development of tolerance, the margin of safety between the effective dose and the lethal dose becomes very narrow. That is, in order to obtain the same level of intoxication, the tolerant abuser may raise his or her dose to a level that may result in coma or death. Although many individuals have taken barbiturates therapeutically without harm, concern about the addiction potential (withdrawal symptoms can include tonic-clonic or grand mal seizures potentially leading to permanent disability or even death) of barbiturates and the ever-increasing number of fatalities associated with them led to the development of alternative medications, namely benzodiazepines. Today, fewer than 10 percent of all sedative/hypnotic prescriptions in the United States are for barbiturates.
History
Other non-therapeutical use
Barbiturates in high doses are used for physician-assisted suicide (PAS), and, in combination with a muscle relaxant, for euthanasia and for capital punishment by lethal injection.
Trivia
References
Text partially derived from public domain text from U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency.
http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/barbiturates/barbiturates.shtml
http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/rzepa/mim/drugs/html/barbiturate_text.htm
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Barbiturate".