STUDIES ON THE ANTAGONISM OF SODIUM SUCCINATE TO BARBITURATE DEPRESSION

¹ Department of Pharmacology, Medical College of Virginia, Richmond

1. Repetition of the experiment of Soskin and Taubenhaus concerning the use of sodium succinate as an antidote to barbiturate poisoning in hooded rats yielded results similar in nature but somewhat less striking than those obtained by these workers. The preadministration of 1 gram sodium succinate per kg. body weight protected 80 per cent of the treated rats against death from 8.5 mg. sodium pentobarbital per kg., whereas 47.5 per cent of the control animals survived.

2. In an identical experiment with albino rats, 70 per cent of the treated rats recovered while 50 per cent of the control animals recovered.

3. Sodium succinate solutions were found to become less effective upon aging. The number of survivals among albino rats treated with 10 day old solutions of sodium succinate scarcely exceeded those among control rats.

4. No significant difference in death rate was noted from sodium pentobarbital administration between control and treated mice when sodium succinate was administered either subcutaneously or intravenously.

5. Sodium succinate was shown to shorten duration of sodium pentobarbital anesthesia in rabbits to a limited extent. It was far less effective than a moderate dose of picrotoxin.

6. Little additive analeptic effect was obtained by the simultaneous administration of sodium succinate and picrotoxin to rabbits previously given sodium pentobarbital.