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General anesthetics make patients unconscious,
eliminating the sensation of pain over the entire body. Local anesthetics
relieve pain in one area, with the patient remaining awake. Pentothal, an
intravenous anesthetic, goes right into the blood stream and works fast. It was
the world’s first such drug used regularly and became the model for development
of a family of other “short-acting” barbiturate drugs that includes Brevital and
Surital. Pentothal remains in wide use around the world today.
Although Sodium Pentothal produces rapid
unconsciousness, that action lasts only a few minutes. So doctors usually use
Pentothal to begin putting patients to sleep, followed by an inhaled
anesthetic. That’s because many patients would find it very
unpleasant to breathe in a gaseous anesthetic while awake. Inhalable anesthetics
like ether may cause muscle twitching, hallucinations, and other frightening
effects. Pentothal makes the start, or induction, of anesthesia less stressful
for patients.
When Volwiler and Tabern began research in the
1930s at Abbott Laboratories, a big pharmaceutical company, doctors used ether
and chloroform as general anesthetics. Both are inhaled.
The two Ohio researchers wanted to find a drug
that would "put patients out" quickly and comfortably before starting
surgery, and also might have uses alone during brief operations. They tested
more than 200 chemical compounds before settling on
5-ethyl-5-(1-methylbutyl)-2-thiobarbituric acid, or thiopental sodium. That’s
the drug’s chemical name. Sodium Pentothal is the trade name that Abbott
Laboratories decided to use in selling thiopental sodium.
Sodium Pentothal is also used as a radioprotective
drug, to help prevent tissue damage in patients undergoing radiation treatment
for cancer and in individuals who encounter radiation for other reasons. |
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The Truth About “Truth Serum”
CIA agents finally nab the
terrorist, and desperate to discover whether more attacks are on the horizon,
administer a shot of Truth Serum. He immediately blabbers, giving details of the
plot and naming names of fellow terrorists.
That’s the Hollywood version, and
at least part of it is true. Nobody knows for sure whether intelligence agencies
actually use such tactics. But "truth serum" really exists, thanks to Ohio
inventors Ernest H. Volwiler and Donalee L. Tabern.
In the 1940s, psychiatrists started using Sodium Pentothal in a form of
treatment called narcotherapy. It is a kind of drug-induced substitute for
hypnosis, which doesn’t work in many people. Narcotherapy involves giving a
person a dose of Sodium Penthothal too small to cause unconsciousness, but just
enough to make the individual relax completely.
In that anxiety-free state,
patients are more susceptible to suggestion and psychiatrists think it’s
possible to uncover repressed memories and feelings that may be contributing to
psychological problems.
Sodium Pentothal got the name, Truth Serum, because patients under its influence
– and guided by a skillful psychiatrist – lose some inhibitions and may talk
freely about topics they might never otherwise discuss. They tell the truth
about such topics, but only if they want to. Narcotherapy patients, just like
individuals who are hypnotized, don’t loose all self-control and blabber out
answers to every question. If a person wouldn’t disclose damaging information
when fully conscious, he probably wouldn’t do it when under the effects of Truth
Serum.
And Sodium Pentothal is not the only drug used as Truth Serum. Some
psychiatrists think that drugs like Sodium Amytal and scopolamine are good
alternatives. |
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