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Archaic classification of barbiturates
Author(s) -
Mark Lester C.
Publication year - 1969
Publication title -
clinical pharmacology and therapeutics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.941
H-Index - 188
eISSN - 1532-6535
pISSN - 0009-9236
DOI - 10.1002/cpt1969103287
Subject(s) - barbiturate , hypnosis , sedation , sedative , medicine , anesthesia , anesthetic , hypnotic , intensive care medicine , psychology , pharmacology , alternative medicine , pathology
The classification of barbiturates as long‐, intermediate‐, short‐, or ultrashort‐acting, based on findings in animals, has been shown to be scientifically unsound when tested in carefully controlled studies in human subiects. The spectrum of barbiturate effects extends in dose‐dependent fashion from sedation to hypnosis to anesthesia to poisoning to death. Any of these effects can be achieved deliberately or accidentally by any barbiturate given in appropriate dosage, although differences in physicochemical properties and pharmacokinetic behavior do tend to confer some degree of specialization upon individual barbiturates in therapeutic usage. For clinical purposes it would be more logical to classify this family of drugs as “sedative‐hypnotic barbiturates” or “anesthetic barbiturates,” recognizing that the members can be moved from one group to the other as desired by the prescribing physician.