Hi Matthew,
The article doesn't say anything about pheno. causes an increased chance of suicide under the dosage prescribed by Drs. I was on it from 1975-1988.
Steve
--- In epilepsy@yahoogroups.com, "Matthew Ford" <matthewford@...> wrote:
>
> 1997-03-28 04:00:00 PST RANCHO SANTA FE, SAN DIEGO COUNTY --
> The powerful drugs called barbiturates have improved life for hundreds of
> thousands of people by calming nerves, easing pain and inducing sleep. Used
> at the right time, for the right reasons, they are safe and effective. But
> as seen in the mass suicide at Rancho Santa Fe, they also are deadly.
> Barbiturates mixed with alcohol are what caused rock star Jimi Hendrix to
> pass out, choke and die. They also claimed the lives of actress Marilyn
> Monroe, radical guru Abbie Hoffman, American Conservatory Theater founder
> William Ball and Jeanine Deckers, the "Singing Nun," who killed herself with
> 150 pills and a shot of cognac.
> The recipe for death among the cult members living in Rancho Santa Fe,
> according to Dr. Brian Blackbourne, San Diego County coroner, was this:
> "Take a little package of pudding or applesauce and eat a couple of
> teaspoons. Pour the medicine in and stir it up. Eat it fairly quickly and
> then drink the vodka beverage. Then lay back and rest quietly."
> The type of barbiturate used, called Phenobarbital, is not particularly
> potent when taken alone. It takes at least 4.5 grams - or 150 30-mg. tablets
> - to be lethal, according to "Final Exit," the 1991 guidebook to assisted
> suicide by Hemlock Society founder Derek Humphry.
> But its toxicity is multiplied 50 percent when taken with alcohol, according
> to Humphry.
> By interfering with chemical messengers in the brain, called
> neurotransmitters, it slows the activity of nerves that control breathing
> and heart action, creating effects ranging from relaxation to coma - and
> death.
> Often barbiturates are used in the execution of prisoners by lethal
> injection. They also are commonly employed by Dutch physicians in performing
> euthanasia for the terminally ill.
> Each year more than 15,000 deaths caused by barbiturate poisoning, often
> combined with alcohol, are reported in the United States. Almost certainly a
> high percentage are suicides, but exact figures are impossible to obtain.
> So-called "long-acting" barbiturates - including phenobarbital - typically
> take one to two hours to reach the brain and are used medically to induce
> sleep, provide day-long relief for anxiety problems and treat epilepsy.
> It is the short-acting barbiturates that are the choice for most suicides.
> These drugs - pentobarbital (Nembutal), amobarbital (Amytal), secobarbital
> (Seconal) and a secobarbital-amobarbital mixture known as Tuinal - are the
> type commonly known as "sleeping pills," taking 20 to 45 minutes to work.
> The intoxicating effect lasts 4 to 5 hours.
> But Jamison said the quick-acting pills are so difficult to obtain legally that the victims in Rancho Santa Fe may have decided instead to use very large doses of the more easily obtained phenobarbital.<
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
No comments:
Post a Comment