HYPNOTICS AND BLOOD SUGAR REGULATING CENTRES

¹ From the Biological Department, University College, Leicester

1. Picrotoxin hyperglycemia is regularly suppressed by many aliphatic hypnotics such as chloral hydrate, paraldehyde, barbiturates and chloretone. This effect is produced by a depressant action on the blood sugar regulating centres.

2. Urethane even in larger doses cannot annul the central glycogenolytic action of picrotoxin. Therefore hypnotic action can take place without the sugar centres being involved.

3. The depression of the sugar centres by hypnotics can take place independently of any action on the sleep mechanism. They can be depressed by smaller doses of hypnotics which do not produce sleep, and the depression of the sugar centres can outlast awakening by many hours.

4. Barbiturates have a stronger depressing action on the sugar centres than chloral hydrate and paraldehyde. In equivalent hypnotic doses barbital diminishes the sensitivity of the sugar centres to picrotoxin about six times, but chloral hydrate and paraldehyde only 1.6 to 1.9 times.