Barbiturates are a class of drugs used to treat seizures and insomnia. In this video, I'll give you an easy visual way to remember everything you need to know about barbiturates for test day. Today we're hanging out at the local barber shop, offering the freshest cut in town.
By the way, the barber here should remind you of barbiturates. You know, barber for barbiturates. The barbiturates are a class of drugs easy to recognize because the drug names commonly end in barbitol. For example, take drugs like phenobarbitol, butabarbitol, or secobarbitol.
When you see a question asking about barbiturates or any drug ending in barbitol, just think back to this barbershop. Now that we've introduced the barbiturates and their naming, let's move on to the clinical uses. This barbershop has the most comfortable barber chair to ever exist.
I mean, just take a look at the shocks on the headrest. This headrest is specially designed to absorb shaking, so that the customer's head doesn't move at all while the barber trims his hair. You know how the barber is always telling you to stay as still as possible? Well, just like these anti-shake shocks, barbiturates are also used to stop shaking.
The shaking of seizures, that is. Barbiturates are used to treat seizures. They do this by acting as a central nervous system, or CNS depressant. meaning they slow down neural activity to stop the seizure.
Since seizures are uncontrolled neural activity, and CNS depressants slow down and control neural activity, thereby treating the seizure. In fact, these anti-shake shocks on the barber chair are so comfortable that the client has fallen asleep right there in the chair. Speaking of sleeping, as a CNS depressant, barbiturates can cause sedation, which means that they can make patients drowsy. In fact, This property of barbiturates can even be used for treating insomnia. As with any sedation-causing medication, you should not combine barbiturates with other CNS depressants, like alcohol or opioids, to avoid excess sedation.
And if possible, barbiturates should be taken at night to avoid daytime sleepiness. Got that? When you think of the barber's chair putting this man to sleep, just remember that barbiturates can help people sleep.
This barber shop has invested everything into these comfortable chairs that it has neglected some basic shop maintenance. Take this fan for example. Yeah, this fan isn't going to do much to get airflow going in here. At Pixerize, we like to use fans to symbolize the respiratory system, because both fans and the lungs are responsible for moving air. This dusty, broken old fan is our symbol for respiratory depression, because this fan isn't very good at moving air anymore.
This should help you remember that barbiturates can cause respiratory depression, especially in overdoses. One of the effects of depressing the brain by barbiturates is a resulting decrease in the respiratory drive. This can slow down breathing or even stop a patient from breathing in severe cases, leading to death.
This fatal outcome of overdose is one reason that barbiturates aren't prescribed very often, with other drugs being more preferred in the clinical setting. The man in the chair is a loyal customer to this barbershop. I mean, who wouldn't keep coming back with comfortable chairs like these, right? Take a look at that loyalty punch card in his hand.
You know, since barbershops always offer buy nine haircuts, get one free promotions. Here at Pixerize, we use loyalty cards to symbolize tolerance and dependence. These loyalty cards ensure that the customers keep coming back, which is kind of like tolerance and dependence.
Get it? Barbiturates can easily cause tolerance, meaning a person will need a higher and higher dose to achieve the same effect. What's more, abruptly stopping the drug can lead to withdrawal symptoms, which increases the risk of dependence. In fact, this is another reason why barbiturates are now rarely prescribed, because of their high abuse potential.
Benzodiazepines are the safer alternative, and you know the NCLEX is all about patient safety. However, Barbiturates may still be used if benzodiazepines prove ineffective, so it's important to know these side effects for test day. If I ever want my turn in the barber's chair, I guess I better go wake up this guy.
Before I go, let me give you a quick recap. Barbiturates are a class of drugs easily recognizable with their barbitol ending, with the most common drug being phenobarbital. Barbiturates are CNS depressants, meaning they slow down the brain and neural activity.
This makes barbiturates useful in treating seizures and treating insomnia. Side effects of barbiturates include sedation, dependence, and respiratory depression. Barbiturates are not commonly prescribed anymore because of their high abuse potential and the risk of fatal overdose.
That's it for barbiturates. Since I'm here, I think I'll stick around and get a trim and let you keep studying. You're doing great. See you in the next video.
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