STUDIES ON BARBITURATES VIII. DISTRIBUTION OF BARBITURATES IN THE BRAIN

¹ From the Department of Pharmacology and Materia Medica, Georgetown University School of Medicine, Washington, D. C.

Barbiturates may be recovered from every portion of the central nervous system. The different parts of the central nervous system retain barbiturates in about equal concentrations. These concentrations are usually less than in non-nervous tissues. As a result of these findings the classification of barbiturates as exclusively brain stem hypnotics is rejected. The lecithin contained in the brain interferes with the macro and micro tests for barbiturates, probably by preventing the lipophilic barbiturates from entering into chemical reaction. It must be destroyed before barbiturates can be estimated.