RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 A comparison of thalidomide and pentobarbital - new methods for identifying novel hypnotic drugs. JF Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics JO J Pharmacol Exp Ther FD American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics SP 240 OP 251 VO 203 IS 1 A1 R C Frederickson A1 I H Slater A1 W E Dusenberry A1 C R Hewes A1 G T Jones A1 R A Moore YR 1977 UL http://jpet.aspetjournals.org/content/203/1/240.abstract AB We have compared the sleep-producing effects of thalidomide and pentobarbital. In a dose range that did not produce ataxia, thalidomide increased slow wave sleep and rapid eye movement sleep in cats (2-8 mg/kg p.o.) and rats (16 mg/kg p.o.). Pentobarbital had hypnotic activity in the same dose range but produced ataxia also at these doses. Thalidomide reduced spontaneous activity of both mice and rats. This occurred over a dose range of 8 to 1000 mg/kg p.o., but plateaued at a level of activity well above the complete inactivity of anesthesia that occurred with pentobarbital at well above the complete inactivity of anesthesia that occurred with pentobarbital at doses (greater than or equal to 32 mg/kg p.o.) above the hypnotic range. Several simple screens for thalidomide-like activity have been described which, together, could facilitate the search for thalidomide-like hypnotics. Pentobarbital, at doses 3 to 10 times the hypnotic range, prevented audiogenic seizures in physically dependent rats withdrawn from sodium barbital but thalidomide did not substitute for barbiturates even at doses 30 times those that increased sleep. Thalidomide, but not pentobarbital, enhanced the sleep-producing effect of electrical stimulation of basal forebrain in cats. The latter two findings suggest that thalidomide probably has a mechanism of action different from that of pentobarbital and that this may involve the activation of a sleep center in the forebrain.