Opinions - Why aren't barbiturates more well known or commonly used now?

[Orchid_Suspiria]

SWIM recently came upon a drug called butabital.It's a very mild barbiturate but it wasn't bad in many ways and could probably be very good for certain kinds of pain or anxiety attacks.Like a benzo but somewhat different.From SWIM gathers barbiturates were rather popular in the fifties but you almost never hear about them now.Why?

[Riconoen {UGC}]

I think becuase benzos came along and they were less detrimental to your health, less abusable, and better at what they do.

[zera]

The primary difference between barbituates and benzos is that barbs inhibit the nervous system by increasing the duration that GABA-A pores are open, while benzos do so by increasing the frequency of pore openings.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GABA_A_receptor

The general result of this is that barbituates are much much more dangerous than benzos, as barbs have a linear dose-response curve and benzos have a logarithmic one. That is to say pop a few too many barbs and its quite easy to drop dead, while with benzos its pretty much impossible to kill yourself with them unless you mix with something else. Benzos have a reputation for having bad withdrawal but barbs make benzos seem like pot. Tolerance to the psychological effects rises rapidly, while tolerance to the respiratory effects do not. Consequently regular users often find themselves very close to the margin on coma or death. Barbituate withdrawal has a nasty tendancy to kill a sizeable minority of people that go through it, and you can land yourself in a withdrawal state through very little use (the potential for addiction is far higher than benzos).

Consequently once Valium and the other benzos were invented in the 50s they quickly replaced the barbs as they had basically the same effect, but were much safer. There are strict medical guidelines governing barbituate use today, and I believe that the AMA tells doctors that barbituates are not to be prescribed as a regular medicine, but rather as a temporary thing and use should always be discontinued before somewhere around 14 days.

Reputation Comments on this post:

	Very good, informative post with useful information
	interesting. Love all your intelligent posts, great asset to this forum

[CCCP]

well.. librium came out in the early 50s, and then valium. the two were wildly popular, but when it came to sleeping-aids, they were not used as extensively as barbs.

barbiturate sedatives were used up to the mid 80s in the united states, and are still prescribed for severe insomnia.

the problem with barbiturates is that theyre extremely addictive, and obviously MUCH stronger than benzodiazepines. whereas you can take 2 bottles of xanax and wake up 2 days later feeling fine.. if you take 10 more barbs than you have to, you can go into cardiac arrest and die. fun right?

i'm prescribed various barbiturates for my essential tremor. in the beginning i used to play around with them.. then one day i took just a little bit more than i usually take and was rushed to the ER in respiratory arrest. after that i became very careful with them.. and to this day i fear them.

it's just way too heavy, and there's so many more alternatives these days.. for the most part they are medically obsolete, except in clinical settings where you can be monitored.

Reputation Comments on this post:

Good post, welcome. But please do not incrimate yourself.

[DrMuffy]

Yes barbiturates have been prescribed much less, for anxiety, due to the newer benzodiazepine medications. However, they are still used alot in medications (along with belladonna alkaloids) for IBS, such as Donnatal.

[benzoaddict]

They usually use phenobarb to detox swim off of xanax. That may be the main reason they still make it.

[ImSoHappy]

Because baribuates are much easier to overdose on than benzos, and they more or less produce the same effects.

[ihavequestions]

swim has heard almost no good about barbs.its just way more dangerous that isnt that much more special than that of a benzo. so why do them?

the pros for benzos are higher with much fewer cons than the barbs. marilyn monroes and hendrix both OD'd from them. elvis used to do them as well. withdrawal from barbs alone can kill a person. and much worse than benzos. and everyone knows benzos are dangerous enough when withdrawing

guess thats why you never hear about them anymore.

[Dexyfiend]

Vets still prescribe barbs quite commonly for dogs who suffer from seizures.
Swims dog used to be prescribed phenobarbitol and swim decided to experiment on a couple of occasions. He tells me it was fun and made him sleep alot, he still prefers benzos though and he is well aware of the dangers of barbituates.

[JaWill88]

swim is prescribed 300mg phenobarbital a day. swim used to be on 18mg clonazepam a day (6mg 3x day) and likes the phenobarbital much more. but swim does see how they could be WAY more dangerous as they seem to have a toxic feeling to them as benzos don't. but swim must say it is quite stronger. swim could eat 100mg clonazepam and not be drowsy but his first day on pheno was awesome. completely content (absoulutely no anxiety), a way stronger feeling overall, vision shaky, slurred speech, impaired motor skills, all that good stuff.