Amobarbital (formerly known as amylobarbitone or sodium amytal as the soluble sodium salt) is a drug that is a barbiturate derivative. It has sedative-hypnotic properties. It is a white crystalline powder with no odor and a slightly bitter taste. It was first synthesized in Germany in 1923. It is considered an intermediate acting barbiturate. If amobarbital is taken for extended periods of time, physical and psychological dependence can develop. Amobarbital withdrawal mimics delirium tremens and may be life-threatening. Amobarbital was once manufactured by Eli Lilly and Company in the US under the brand name Amytal in bright blue bullet shaped capsule (known as Pulvules) form containing either 50 or 100 mg of the drug. It was widely abused, known as "blue heavens" on the streets, and was discontinued by Eli Lilly in the early 1980s.

Pharmacology

In an in vitro study in fat thalamic slices amobarbital worked by activating GABAA receptors, which decreased input resistance, depressed burst and tonic firing, especially in ventrobasal and intralaminar neurons, while at the same time increasing burst duration and mean conductance at individual chloride channels; this increased both the amplitude and decay time of inhibitory postsynaptic currents.

Amobarbital has been used in a study to inhibit mitochondrial electron transport in the rat heart in an attempt to preserve mitochondrial function following reperfusion. A 1988 study found that amobarbital increases benzodiazepine receptor binding in vivo with less potency than secobarbital and pentobarbital (in descending order), but greater than phenobarbital and barbital (in descending order). (Secobarbital > pentobarbital > amobarbital > phenobarbital > barbital).

Metabolism

Amobarbital undergoes both hydroxylation to form 3'-hydroxyamobarbital, and N-glucosidation to form 1-(beta-D-glucopyranosyl)amobarbital.

When given slowly by an intravenous route, sodium amobarbital has a reputation for acting as a so-called truth serum. Under the influence, a person will divulge information that under normal circumstances they would block. This was most likely due to loss of inhibition. As such, the drug was first employed clinically by Dr. William Bleckwenn at the University of Wisconsin to circumvent inhibitions in psychiatric patients. The use of amobarbital as a truth serum has lost credibility due to the discovery that a subject can be coerced into having a "false memory" of the event.

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