PSYB65H3 Lecture 8: Lecture 8
Document Summary
Depressants: also known as sedative hypnotics, by definition it means that it causes the cortex to go into a more relaxed state, there are three major categorizes for depressants, the barbiturates: The primary way is through gaba. gaba is the primary inhibitory amino acid transmitter. Almost all of these are also synergistic with each other. For drugs to be synergistic means that they have to work in very similar mechanisms and that they can add to each other or they can cancel each other out. By canceling each other out meaning canceling out the withdrawal effects of each other. Synergistic means that they are very similar in their mechanism of action. For example: barbiturates and alcohol add other very quickly. And some people use it to imply (more than adds it actually multiplies) the effect. Therefore a lot of people die because they take barbiturates and alcohol together. Because barbiturates are synergistic is becomes very lethal.
