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classificaiotn of drugs >>> sedative drugs >>>

Sedative drugs

Barbiturates

This is the name of all the derivatives of the barbiturates' acid, which was originally synthesized by Adolf von Bayer in 1864. There are a few legends about the reason why he named the new substance in such a strange way. Some say that this happened on the St. Barbara's day, and others - that this was the name of the waitress, who gave her urine for the experiments.

The most spread is the systematic way of use of not very big doses; it begins when the dependence appears. Many drugs sold contain phenobarbital; an example is the popular sedalgin-neo. These drugs often contain codeine, caffeine and other substances, to which dependence can also appear. In this way one can be dependent on many different substances at one and the same time.

All the barbiturates have almost one and the same effect, which are different only because their length. The phenobarbital has an effect, which continues 8 - 12 hours. But the barbiturates with shorter effect are much more used (amo-, pento- and sekobarbital). There are substances whose effect goes on for a quite short time - 5 to 30 minutes. Thiopental sodium is often used for intoxication of innocent victims and as a "drug of truth" in criminal novels.