DIETHYLBUTANEDIOL, A CONVULSANT HOMOLOGUE OF THE DEPRESSANT, DIETHYLPROPANEDIOL

¹ Department of Surgery, Division of Orthopedics and Department of Radiation Biology, Division of Pharmacology, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Rochester, New York
² Department of Pharmacology, Emory University School of Medicine, Emory University, Georgia

1. 2,2-Diethyl-1,3-propanediol is a potent central nervous system depressant and anticonvulsant remarkable for its potency in protecting animals against the lethal and convulsant effects of pentylenetetrazole. 2,2-Diethyl-1,4- butanediol, a compound with but one additional methylene group, is a potent convulsant in mice, rats, cats and rabbits. Large doses of diethyl-butanediol, exceeding the median lethal dose by about fifty times kill mice by a depressant action.

2. Pentylenetetrazole and DEB were found to be incompletely additive when given as mixtures. Diethyl-propanediol and other anticonvulsants such as phenobarbital and trimethadione antagonized the convulsant and lethal effects of DEB in mice. This suggests that the "oppositeness of action" is not specific but is merely another example of pharmacologic antagonism.

3. Examination of the action of DEB on cats has shown the compound is capable of giving rise to stimulation and convulsive patterns at all levels of the central nervous system. The site of greatest susceptibility appears to lie in the brain stem.

4. DEB induced convulsions were arrested during stimulation of the bulbar reticular inhibitory region.

5. Studies of oxygen uptake by rat brain homogenate failed to establish any difference between the two drugs. Both compounds caused an inhibition of Q_O2 at a concentration of 8-10 mM/1.

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