Posted by Quintal on February 21, 2007, at 10:40:42
In reply to Re: Ketamine: a factory reset for the brain, posted by rovers95 on February 21, 2007, at 7:24:02
>Just wondering what are barbituates???
You've never heard of barbs? They're non-selective CNS depressants - dry alcohol is a poor analogy that is often used. Extremely popular as sleeping pills and tranquillizers from 1903 when Veronal (barbital) was first marketed, until the early sixties when benzos hit the market. They are also very addictive and very dangerous in overdose. Apparently tolerance to the therapeutic effects develop quickly but tolerance to the respiratory depressant effect does not. What you end up with after maybe a few months or years of daily use are addicts who have to take a dose close to that which causes respiratory failure just to achieve an effective therapeutic response.
It was notoriously easy for the addict in this situation to wake and forget they'd taken their nightly dose and take another from the bottle on their bedside table. Many never woke again. This is what happened to Judy Garland with Seconal (secobarbital) and Marylin Monroe (though Marylin is said to have taken a deliberate overdose of Nembutal [pentobarbital]), and this happened to **many** ordinary men and women (but mostly women) of that era. That's why the benzos with their almost ridiculous LD50 became so popular. Benzos are also more effective anxiolytics.
Q
poster:Quintal
thread:734331
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070219/msgs/734802.html