This article reviews the actions of general anaesthetics on synapses in the mammalian central nervous system. It is shown that during general anaesthesia, anaesthetics act primarily on the chemical transmission process itself and do not affect the conduction of impulses in nerve axons or change the electrical excitability of neurones. Virtually all general anaesthetics depress excitatory synapt...

Clinical and electrical evidence of peripheral neuropathy may result from long term treatment with phenytoin or barbiturates, especially in combination, or after repeated exposure to toxic blood concentrations of either drug. Prolonged acute toxicity with phenytoin may rarely lead to permanent residual ataxia. Reversible dystonia may occasionally be precipitated by phenytoin or carbamazepine; a...

in cases of overdose and identification of the actual barbiturate concerned may be impossible because of the closely similar Rf values of this group. Jackson (1960) described treatment with hot sulphuric acid before paper chromatography to distinguish between barbiturates of similar chromatographic mobility. The inert nature of the silica gel supporting medium used in thin-layer separations ena...

The problem of the sleep-waking mechanism may be approached by a study of the toxins known to induce the states of sleep or awakening, and by investigation, particularly, of the antagonism of sleepand wake-inducing drugs. A primary consideration is the localization of the effects of these agents. The studies of Maloney, Fitch, and Tatum have shown that picrotoxin is very effective in awakening ...

Matrix metalloproteinases are implicated in a wide range of pathophysiological processes and potent selective inhibitors for these enzymes continue to be eagerly sought. 5,5-Disubstituted barbiturates hold promise as inhibitor types being stable in vivo and relatively selective for the gelatinases (MMP-2 and MMP-9). In this paper we describe the synthesis of 5-piperazine and -homopiperazine sub...

The synthesis of radioactive urea (Cr4) of high specific activity* permits one to trace the metabolism of urea and many of its readily synthesized derivatives, i.e. the barbiturates. The universal use of the barbiturates in clinical medicine makes an investigation of their metabolism in the animal of interest. Pentobarbital sodium (nembutal) (tagged with C4, specific activity 8400 counts per se...

In the cat, the e.e.g. of the neocortex and the hippocampus and the cortical evoked potentials to central sensory pathway stimulation seen during Althesin anaesthesia were compared with those seen during barbiturate anaesthesia. During Althesin anaesthesia the neocortical e.e.g. displayed spindle-like activity, which was similar to that seen during barbiturate anaesthesia. Although both Althesi...

Phenobarbital treatment has been observed to be negatively associated with bladder cancer risk in a few studies. It has been suggested that phenobarbital may induce drug-metabolizing enzymes that detoxify the bladder carcinogens found in cigarette smoke. We examined the relationship of barbiturate use to bladder cancer risk and the potential modifying effect of cigarette smoking in a large coho...