Hypnotics chloral derivative

Pharmacological Profiles of Anxiolytics and Sedative—Hypnotics. Historically, chemotherapy of anxiety and sleep disorders rehed on a wide variety of natural products such as opiates, alcohol, cannabis, and kawa pyrones. Use of various bromides and chloral derivatives ia these medical iadications enjoyed considerable popularity early ia the twentieth century. Upon the discovery of barbiturates, numerous synthetic compounds rapidly became available for the treatment of anxiety and insomnia. As of this writing barbiturates are ia use primarily as iajectable general anesthetics (qv) and as antiepileptics. These agents have been largely replaced as treatment for anxiety and sleep disorders. 

Anxiolytics, sedatives, hypnotics (benzodiazepines, barbiturates, chloral derivatives, chlormethiazole, zopiclone, zolpidem)... 

Drugs acting on GABA/glutamate - hypnotics/anxiolytics barbiturates, benzodiazepines, chlormethiazole, chloral derivatives, baclofen - anticonvulsants phenobarbitone, primidone, phe-nytoin, sodium, valproate, carbamazepine - alcohol, phencyclidine, ketamine... 

Chloral Hydrate. (An ethane derivative.) Chloral hydrate is one of the easiest drugs to make in this entire book. It is an effective hypnotic, that is rapidly absorbed from the stomach, and produces dulled sensoiy and motor functions, that last for 6 to 8 hours. The dose is from 250 mg to 1,500 mg. Chloral can be purchased at most any chemical supply house, eliminating the need for performing the first part of this synthesis. Chloral is not very suspicious (unless you re buying it by the 55 gallon drum), so you should have no trouble in making chloral hydrate directly from chloral. 

Chloral hydrate [KLOR al HYE drate] is a trichlorinated derivative of acetaldehyde that is converted to trichloroethanol in the body. The drug is an effective sedative and hypnotic that induces sleep in about 30 minutes and lasts about 6 hours. Chloral hydrate is irritating to the gastrointestinal tract and causes epigastric distress. It also produces an unusual, unpleasant taste sensation. 

For chemical reasons that arc easily rationalized, few aldehydes are valuable hypnotic drugs. The aldehyde in use. chloral (as the hydrate), is thought to act principally through a metabolite, trichloroethanol. Acetaldehyde is used as the cyclic trimcr derivative, paraldehyde, which could also be grouped as an ether. 

Action op Chloral Hydrate upon the Economy.—Although it was the ready decomposition of chloral into a formiate and chloroform which first suggested its use as a hypnotic to Liebreich, and although this decomposition was at one time lieved to occur in the body under the influence of the alkaline reaction of the blood, more recent investigations have shown that the formation of chloroform from chloral in the blood is, to sav the least, highly improbable, and that chloral has, in common with many other chlorinated derivatives of this series, the property of acting directly upon the nerve-centres. 

---