Barbiturates mental effects

The mental effects of barbiturates depend on the amount of the drug taken and the strength of the dosage. Generally, a person falls asleep when taking a prescribed dosage at bedtime. 

The side effects of barbiturates include sedation, poor physical coordination, and impaired mental performance. They also potentiate the intoxicating effects of alcohol. Barbiturates can be extremely dangerous in overdose, causing anesthesia, coma, and even death. In addition, barbiturates can cause dangerous suppression of breathing in patients with sleep apnea or other respiratory disorders. With repeated use over just a few weeks, physical dependence and tolerance to their effects can develop, leading to increasing doses to maintain the desired therapeutic effect. If a... 

Kava should not be used with alcohol, benzodiazepines, barbiturates or other sedatives because of their additive effects. In one case, coma resulted from mixing alprazolam and kava. Patients have complained that kava, while relaxing the body, may be less effective for mental anxiety with obsessive or racing thoughts than are the benzodiazepines. 

Chlorpromazine produces a tranquihty characterized by a detached serenity without depression of mental faculties or clouding of consciousness. It depresses the CNS selectively by reducing input directed to the reticular formation through collaterals arriving from the sensory pathways. Chlorpromazine-induced sedation differs from that caused by barbiturates in that the patient can be easily aroused. In practice, the more sedative neuroleptics are often prescribed for agitated, overactive patients, and the less sedative agents are used for apathetic, withdrawn patients. However, sedation is not necessary for its antipsychotic property for two reasons (1) tolerance develops to the sedative effects, and (2) fluphenazine, prochlorperazine, and trifluoperazine are excellent neuroleptics that lack pronounced sedative effects. 

Acute and chronic administration of alcohol can inhibit the biotransformation or detoxification of many drugs, such as barbiturates, meprobamate, and amphetamines by liver enzymes. The effect can occur in two opposite ways. Alcohol and cannabinoids effects are additive. Both are CNS depressants. Animal studies indicate that simultaneous administration of alcohol and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive component of marijuana, increased the tolerance and physical dependence to alcohol. Human studies show that alcohol and THC combination enhanced the impairment of physical and mental performance only, and there is no evidence of any interaction between both drugs. With barbiturates. 

Diffutin (see above) has pronounced adaptogenic (anti-stress and anti-anxiety) activity, as well as being a mild CNS depressant (barbiturate potentiation). It also has a marked inotropic effect in perfused frog heart, and shows no arrhythmogenic properties. In addition, it potentiates the contractile response of guinea pig vas deferens to catecholamines, without inhibition of the uptake of adrenalin. At 500 mg/kg, diffutin is nontoxic to dogs. The use of Canscora in Indian medicine as a herbal remedy for certain mental disorders is supported by these observations. 

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