Amobarbital Totally Explained

Everything about Sodium Amytal totally explained

Amobarbital (formerly known as amylobarbitone) is a drug that's a barbiturate derivative. It has sedative-hypnotic and analgesic properties. It is a white crystalline powder with no odor and a slightly bitter taste. If amobarbital is taken for extended periods of time, physical and psychological dependence can develop.

Pharmacology

According to an in vitro study conducted at the University of British Columbia, amobarbital works by activating GABA_A receptors, which decreases input resistance, depresses burst and tonic firing, especially in ventrobasal and intralaminar neurons, while at the same time increasing burst duration and mean conductance at individual chloride channels; this increases both the amplitude and decay time of postsynaptic currents.
It has an LD₅₀ in mice of 212 mg/kg s.c.

Metabolism

Amobarbital undergoes both hydroxylation to form 3'-hydroxyamobarbital, which has both levorotatory and dextrorotatory isomers and N-glucosidation to form 1-(beta-D-glucopyranosyl)amobarbital.

Indications

Approved

Unapproved/Off-Label

Sodium amobarbital has a reputation for having activity as a truth serum, where the person under the influence of the drug will submit to almost any request given by another person. It has been used to convict alleged murderers such as Andres English-Howard, who strangled his girlfriend to death but claimed innocence. He was surreptitiously administered the drug, by his attorney, and under the influence of it he revealed why he strangled her and under which circumstances. A year later he confessed, on the stand, and was convicted on the basis of these statements; he later committed suicide in his cell. The use of amobarbital as a truth serum has lost credibility due to the discovery that the subject can be coerced into having a 'false memory' of the event. In controlled doses, it's used in the Narco Analysis test to trace crime and criminals in modern forensics.

Catatonic mutism, sometimes combined with caffeine to combat somnolence.

It was also used in the Battle of the Bulge as a healing pill to send people back to the front.

Contraindications

The following drugs should be avoided when taking amobarbital:

Alcohol

Caffeine

Chloramphenicol

Chlorpromazine

Cyclophosphamide

Ciclosporin

Digitoxin

Doxorubicin

Doxycycline

Methoxyflurane

Metronidazole

Quinine

Theophylline

Warfarin

Benzodiazepines, such as diazepam, clonazepam or nitrazepam

Antiepileptics, such as phenobarbital or carbamazepine

Antihistamines, such as doxylamine and clemastine

Narcotic analgesics, such as morphine and oxycodone

Steroids, such as prednisone and cortisone

Antidepressants

Antihypertensives, such as atenolol and propranolol

Antiarrhythmics, such as verapamil and digoxin Amobarbital has been known to decrease the effects of hormonal birth control, sometimes to the point of uselessness. Being chemically related to phenobarbital, it might also do the same thing to digitoxin, a cardiac glycoside.
In 1988, Miller et al reported that amobarbital increases benzodiazepine receptor binding in vivo with less potency than secobarbital and pentobarbital (in descending order), but greater than phenobarbital and barbital (in ascending order).

Overdose

Some side effects of overdose include confusion (severe); decrease in or loss of reflexes; drowsiness (severe); fever; irritability (continuing); low body temperature; poor judgment; shortness of breath or slow or troubled breathing; slow heartbeat; slurred speech; staggering; trouble in sleeping; unusual movements of the eyes; weakness (severe). Death can be a result.

Further Information

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