Barbiturate
From Drug Rehab Wiki
A barbiturate is a drug that slows down or depresses the central nervous system. Doctors prescribe them as sedatives, sleeping pills, anesthetics, or as treatments for epilepsy.
The three kinds of barbiturates are short-acting, intermediate-acting, and long-acting. The intermediate kind lasts between three and six hours, and is the most widely available and abused. At low doses, barbiturates reduce anxiety and the rate of breathing, blood pressure, heart rate and eye movements. However, at higher levels, these drugs can act as stimulants, and at very high levels, they can cause sleep, coma, or even death.
One of the greatest dangers of using barbiturates is that if you increase the amount you take by just a tiny amount, you can put yourself in danger of overdosing and death. When barbiturates were at the height of their popularity, many people abused them and died accidentally, including celebrities like Marilyn Monroe (see Marilyn Monroe overdose death), Jimi Hendrix, and Judy Garland (see Judy Garland overdose death). Because of this danger, today's doctors tend to prescribe other kinds of drugs, such as benzodiazepines, for sedation.
Side effects can be drowsiness, headaches, dizziness, depression, constipation, and upset stomach. At high doses the person becomes mentally and physically impaired, as if he were drunk on alcohol. People who abuse these drugs often appear to have severe mood swings and anxiety.
Withdrawal from barbiturate addictions can be life-threatening if you do it on your own too suddenly. People have experienced severe seizures and died this way. The best thing to do is to enter a treatment center, where a medical professional can help you withdraw by slowly lowering the amounts of barbiturates you are taking. Withdrawal symptoms can be severe and include violent cramps, tremors, sweats, headaches, dizziness, vomiting, anxiety, confusion, paranoia, hallucinations, nightmares, and insomnia.
Trademarked names of common barbiturates are Seconal, Luminal (phenobarbital), Amytal, Nembutal, and Fioricet.
