Among 39 patients treated by regular haemodialysis for four years or more pathological fractures and histological evidence of osteomalacia were significantly more common in those taking barbiturates. Out of 58 transplant recipients surveyed after one year, seven had osteomalacia; four of these had been taking phenobarbitone and phenytoin and one had taken barbiturates alone. Sedatives and other...

All of the anesthetic (amylobarbitone, butobarbitone, pentobarbitone, phenobarbitone, and secobarbitone) and convulsant (5-ethyl-5(3'-methylbut-2-enyl) barbituric acid (3M2B) and 5-ethyl-5-(2'-cyclohexylidene-ethyl) barbituric acid (CHEB) barbiturates tested enhanced the binding of GABA to a carefully prepared P2 membrane fraction from rat brain in a dose-dependent manner. These findings are in...

We describe a rapid polarization fluoroimmunoassay for screening for the presence of barbiturates in urine. The single reagent is prepared by pre-mixing antiserum with a fluorescein-labeled barbiturate derivative as tracer. Use of a mixture of two sheep antisera, raised against different barbiturate immunogens, results in an assay with a broad cross-reactivity spectrum for most common barbitura...

Having practised during the era when barbiturates were used as anxiolytics and hypnotics, I have a great appreciation for benzodiazepines. Unlike barbiturates, sudden withdrawal was never fatal, and suicide was virtually impossible if benzodiazepines were used alone. The first drug of this class, chlordiazepoxide (Librium) was approved in the USA in 1961, followed by diazepam (Valium) in 1969, ...

We developed a method for measuring pentobarbital in samples that also contain phenobarbital. The phenobarbital is destroyed by adding sodium hydroxide and then heating at 95 degrees C for 60 min. Pentobarbital is not affected by this pretreatment and can then be measured with an Abbott TDx barbiturates kit. Using this method, we obtained an average analytical recovery of 98% of added pentobarb...