Butabarbital
chemical compound
Butabarbital (brand name Butisol) is a prescription barbiturate sleep aid and anxiety medication. Butabarbital has a particularly fast onset of effects and short duration of action compared to other barbiturates, which makes it useful for certain applications such as treating severe insomnia, relieving general anxiety and relieving anxiety before surgical procedures; however it is also relatively dangerous particularly when combined with alcohol, and so is now rarely used, although it is still prescribed in some Eastern European and South American countries. Its intermediate duration of action gives butabarbital an abuse potential slightly lower than secobarbital. Butabarbital can be hydrolyzed to valnoctamide.
Butabarbital is also sold in combination with belladonna alkaloids under the brand name Butibel. The belladonna is added for antispasmodic effect. This product contains a low dose of butabarbital combined with a standardised mix of belladonna alkaloids and is used as an antispasmodic taken to relieve cramping and spasms of the stomach and intestines. They are used also to decrease the amount of acid formed in the stomach. Another similar product is Donnatal, which contains belladonna alkaloids combined with phenobarbital.
History
Barbiturates were first discovered to have medical use in 1903, when a research at Bayer showed barbital to be an effective sedative for dogs.
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This entry incorporates text from “Butabarbital” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.