Ethanol and pentobarbital: Comparison of behavioral and subjective effects in sedative drug abusers. |
| |
Authors: | Mintzer, Miriam Z. Guarino, John Kirk, Timothy Roache, John D. Griffiths, Roland R. |
| |
Abstract: | The behavioral and subjective effects of acute oral doses of placebo, ethanol (0.5, 1.0, and 2.0 g/kg), and pentobarbital (150, 300, 600, and 750 mg/70 kg) were compared in 8 male volunteers with histories of sedative drug abuse using a double-blind, double-dummy, cross-over design. Ethanol and pentobarbital produced similar dose-related decrements in psychomotor and cognitive performance and exhibited a similar profile of effects on staff- and participant-rated measures. There was some evidence indicating that, at the highest dose, pentobarbital was perceived by participants as being more sedating than ethanol and that pentobarbital has a greater abuse liability than ethanol. In conjunction with the results of previous human laboratory studies comparing the effects of different types of sedative-hypnotic drugs, these results support a mostly barbituratelike rather than benzodiazepinelike profile of effects for ethanol. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
| |
Keywords: | |
|
|