Phenobarbital
Pronunciation:feen-oh-BAR-bi-tall
Chemical Abstracts Service Registry Number:50-06-6
Formal Names:Arco-Lase Plus, Donnatal, Gardenal, Luminal, Phenobarb, Pheno-
barbitone, Solfoton
Informal Names:Phennies, Phenos
Type:Depressant (barbiturate class).Seepage 20
Federal Schedule Listing:Schedule IV (DEA no. 2285)
USA Availability:Prescription
Pregnancy Category:D
Uses.This is one of the more familiar pharmaceuticals. For about a century
it has been used as an anticonvulsant and was prescribed as a tranquilizer
and as a migraine remedy, although all those functions are being superseded
by more modern drugs. Phenobarbital is also given to treat cyclic vomiting in
children and hyperbilirubinemia (a type of jaundice) in infants. The drug is
used against epilepsy and against seizures with other causes, such as fever.
The substance has cross-tolerance withalcoholand is given temporarily to
help relieve withdrawal symptoms from opiates or alcohol. Despite acceptance
of phenobarbital for that purpose, scientific proof is lacking for its usefulness
in alcohol withdrawal.
Phenobarbital played a walk-on role in the history of drug manufacturing
when it was discovered as a contaminant in a batch of the antibiotic sulfathia-
zole. After that 1941 discovery the U.S. Food and Drug Administration created
the system of manufacturing controls that has made the terms “purity” and
“American pharmaceuticals” synonymous.
Drawbacks.Experimental use of the drug to treat cerebral malaria in ju-
veniles was disastrous. The treatment halved the seizure rate but doubled the
death rate, a rate that climbed even higher whendiazepamwas administered
in combination. Some medical personnel have noted that patients taking phe-
nobarbital tend to become more bellicose and uncooperative. A medical cu-
riosity noted as late as the 1960s was that persons could be pronounced dead
from a phenobarbital overdose and later be discovered alive.
In some research children receiving the drug for seizures show long-lasting
reduction in IQ scores and in scores of other cognitive tests, but different
research finds normal results after children have received the drug daily for