What is a barbiturate sedative?
Barbiturates are sedative-hypnotics, a type of central nervous system (CNS) depressant used to treat insomnia, seizures, and headaches. Barbiturates may also be used in a hospital setting for pre-operative sedation.
What medical conditions can be treated by barbiturate use?
While barbiturates are used in the treatment of a large range of conditions, they are most commonly prescribed to treat anxiety, insomnia, and seizures, and as anesthetics for surgeries. The medications are grouped into four categories: ultrashort-acting, short-acting, intermediate-acting, and long-acting.
What is barbs drug?
Barbiturates (frequently referred to as “barbs”) are a class of drugs that are central nervous system depressants. They work by increasing the activity of the neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric acid, or GABA, in the brain to produce feelings of calmness, relaxation, and euphoria.
Can you stop phenobarbital cold turkey?
No one should stop taking phenobarbital or change the amount they take without talking to the doctor first. Stopping any seizure medicine all at once can cause seizures that may be life-threatening. The risk of withdrawal symptoms with phenobarbital makes it especially important to be careful in stopping this medicine.
Do you need to wean off phenobarbital?
Phenobarbital therapy may be successfully discontinued in elderly patients, particularly when there is no clear indication for its use. When discontinuing phenobarbital therapy, tapering is recommended to avoid the signs and the symptoms of phenobarbital withdrawal.
What are the long-term side effects of phenobarbital?
Individual signs of long-term abuse of this drug can include:
- Moodiness/irritability.
- Confusion.
- Insomnia.
- Impaired judgment.
- Memory problems.
- Increased aggression.
- Blistering on the extremities.
What is the best medication for seizures?
Many medications are used in the treatment of epilepsy and seizures, including:
- Carbamazepine (Carbatrol, Tegretol, others)
- Phenytoin (Dilantin, Phenytek)
- Valproic acid (Depakene)
- Oxcarbazepine (Oxtellar, Trileptal)
- Lamotrigine (Lamictal)
- Gabapentin (Gralise, Neurontin)
- Topiramate (Topamax)
- Phenobarbital.
What are the long term effects of a seizure?
Long lasting seizures, or status epilepticus, may also cause brain damage or death. People with epilepsy are eight times more likely than people without it to experience certain other chronic conditions, including dementia, migraine, heart disease, and depression.
Do seizures shorten life span?
Reduction in life expectancy can be up to 2 years for people with a diagnosis of idiopathic/cryptogenic epilepsy, and the reduction can be up to 10 years in people with symptomatic epilepsy.
Do seizures reset your brain?
After the seizure, it takes time for the brain to reboot, just like you computer. When it reboots, you can type as much as you want, but until the programs are ready to go, nothing is going to happen on the screen.
How do you take care of yourself after a seizure?
These are general steps to help someone who is having any type seizure:
- Stay with the person until the seizure ends and he or she is fully awake.
- Comfort the person and speak calmly.
- Check to see if the person is wearing a medical bracelet or other emergency information.
- Keep yourself and other people calm.
Do seizures affect memory?
Over time, repeated temporal lobe seizures can cause the part of the brain that’s responsible for learning and memory (hippocampus) to shrink. Brain cell loss in this area may cause memory problems.
Is chocolate good for epilepsy?
In humans, the intake of methylxanthines (abundantly found in cocoa-based dark chocolate as well as in caffeine) have been proposed to not only reduce the anticonvulsant activity of a number of antiepileptic drugs,88–90 but to also have the capability to trigger seizures in patients without known underlying epilepsy.
Is coffee good for epilepsy?
Generally speaking, most people with epilepsy should be OK to drink coffee, tea, soda and other caffeinated drinks in small quantities without any serious risk of increasing the number of seizures they have.