Chloral hydrate withdrawal from

Chloral hydrate, glutethimide, and methaqualone also produce a depressant effect. Chloral hydrate is dangerous to use as an anesthetic, but it has been used to treat persons undergoing withdrawal from heroin, GHB, and alcohol. A mixture of chloral hydrate and alcohol is termed a Mickey Finn and has been used as a date rape drug. 

Hydrate 41 is stable because there are no a-hydrogen atoms to lose, and the chlorine atoms withdraw electrons from the carbon, which in turn withdraws electrons from the C-0 units. Hydrate 41 is known as chloral hydrate—a white, crystalline solid that was first prepared in 1832. It is a depressant used to induce sleep. This compound is more potent when mixed with alcohol and is a very powerful depressant that has been used as a knockout potion or Mickey Finn. From a structural point of view, it is important to remember that hydrate 41 has no protons on the a-carbon, so enol formation is not possible. 

For the hydrate to revert to the original carbonyl compound it has to lose eOH or H2CF, which is rendered more difficult by the electron-withdrawing group. The hydrate from chloral is also stabilised... 

Hydrates cannot be isolated from the ketones and aldehydes seen most often in this book, but in a few special cases a hydrate is isolated. If the carbon attached to the carbonyl carbon (the a-carbon) has strong electron-withdrawing groups on it—and, particularly, if no hydrogens are on the a-carbon adjacent to the carbon bearing the two OH units—the hydrate may be isolated. Chloral (40) is a common name for trichloroethanal (trichloroacetaldehyde is also used as a common name) and it reacts with water to form a stable hydrate, 41. 

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