PSYC 3403 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Barbiturate, Methaqualone, Phenobarbital

• School: Carleton University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 3403
• Professor: Tarry Ahuja

Document Summary

Nonbarbiturate sedative-hypnotics: refers to an agent that has a depressing quality. Phenobarbital was introduced as a sedative in 1912: helps you sleep and helps with anxiety. Originally mechanism of action was unknown: didn"t know how it actually worked, wasn"t until alter that they figured out how it worked. Classified by chemical structure: labelled based on interactions rather than structure. Phenobarbital: has specific compounds at the binding sites. Barbiturate nucleus: neucleus is the core, r1, r2, r3 = potential binding sites. Depending on what compound is at the r site determines what compound is created. Nonselective neuronal depression: decreased activity causes depression. Depress polysynaptic (multiple connections) diffuse brain-stem neuronal pathways in: the brainstem, cerebral cortex. If you give them more, does the depression decrease, or is it an all-or-none": as you increase dose, you want an increase in it"s effects. Same effect (slow down), but different ways to get there.