Abstract

Eighteen healthy male postaddicts who volunteered to take barbiturates for 90 days were studied by means of clinical observation and performance on psychomotor tests under control and chronic drug administration conditions, and following withdrawal of drugs. Ten men received 0.4 gram of secobarbital daily divided among four equal doses, and 8 men received pentobarbital in the same dose schedule.

The effects of both drugs were found to be quite similar. No appreciable effects on temperature, blood pressure, pulse, respiratory rate, caloric intake or body weight were observed during the course of the experiment. Tolerance was demonstrated on all measures showing an initial barbiturate effect, including hours of sleep, intoxication scores and psychomotor test performance.