Cha. 6: Abuse of and Addiction to Barbiturate-Like Compounds Flashcards
Barbiturates were originally designed to _____.
Relieve anxiety
The only difference between the types of barbiturates is the _____.
Half-life
Today, barbiturates are used for _____ and _____.
Seizures and short length surgery
Why were barbiturates pulled off market for anxiety?
They were way too addictive
Define potentiation effect (aka supper-additive or synergistic effect).
If you take two different chemicals that have same CNS effect, then you are going to get an effect beyond what you would expect by singular use or simple combination of two chemicals
What are the effects of mixing barbiturates and alcohol together?
- Drop blood-pressure and slow heart rate - could stop it completely causing death.
- Respiratory depression can also occur (shallow breathing)
What are the effects of abusing barbiturates?
Causes suppression of activity in CNS (relax), sense of euphoria, profoundly messes up sleep
Tolerance to barbiturates develops _____.
Very rapidly, within weeks and months.
What are some of the drugs that barbiturates have a very bad interaction with?
Antibiotics and psychotropic meds
What are barbiturates cross-tolerant with?
Alcohol and other CNS depressants
* In surgery, you are paralyzed, but can feel everything I you are addicted to these
Barbiturates demonstrates the _____ life-threatening withdrawal of all chemicals.
Most life-threatening; must be in medical setting, this is a medical crisis and lasts for days
Define Methoqualone
Barbiturate-like chemicals on the streets (qualudes on street)
What would the acute effects of any CNS depressant look like?
Like you were drinking (behavior, motor skills, speech)
