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Psychotropic Use during Pregnancy
Published in “Bert” Bertis Britt Little, Drugs and Pregnancy, 2022
Ethchlorvynol is a tertiary acetylenic alcohol and is used as an oral hypnotic and sedative agent. No studies have been published regarding the frequency of congenital malformations among newborns of women exposed to ethchlorvynol during gestation. Symptoms of neonatal withdrawal were observed in the newborn of a woman who was treated with ethchlorvynol as a hypnotic during the last 3 months of gestation. Neonatal withdrawal symptoms observed were jitteriness, irritability, and hypotonia (Rumak and Walravens, 1973). No animal studies evaluating the teratogenic effects of ethchlorvynol are published, but behavioral changes were observed among the offspring of pregnant rats treated with ethchlorvynol in doses greater than those used in humans (Peters and Hudson, 1981).
Alcohol and Sedatives
Published in Frank Lynn Iber, Alcohol and Drug Abuse as Encountered in Office Practice, 2020
Ethchlorvynol (Placidyl®), is a Schedule IV controlled substance. It is rapidly absorbed, mildly bound to protein (30 to 50%), metabolized by the liver to a product excreted by the kidney, and has a half life of 10 to 20 h, but its duration of action is about 5 h. Overdose is similar to chloral hydrate. It is not very dialyzable.
Disposition and Metabolism of Drugs of Dependence
Published in S.J. Mulé, Henry Brill, Chemical and Biological Aspects of Drug Dependence, 2019
Methods for the determination of ethchlorvynol in urine and serum by gas chromatography429 and ultraviolet spectrophotometry430 have been described. The rapid onset of hypnotic effect on administration of oral doses in animals indicates that it is efficiently absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract. In human subjects after oral ingestion, the maximum blood level was attained in one to one and a half hours, then declined to undetectable levels in blood three hours after administration.431 Ethchlorvynol does not induce or inhibit hepatic drug metabolizing enzymes.432 Recent study433 on serum and urine levels of ethchlorvynol in man (500 mg dose) using a gas chromatographic technique showed very rapid absorption with an absorptive halflife of 0.3 hour. In 25 hours, 0.025% of the total dose is excreted unchanged or as glucuronide. Peak serum levels of 2.5, 6.5, or 8.0 μg/ml were seen at 1 hour after administration of 200, 500, and 750 mg capsules, respectively. The decline of serum levels was biphasic with disappearance constants of 0.5 and 0.03 hour−1 and the rate constant for elimination was calculated to be 0.13 hour−1. There was also evidence for extensive tissue localization of ethchlorvynol.
Suspected suicides and suicide attempts involving antipsychotic or sedative-hypnotic medications reported to America’s Poison Centers, 2000–2021
Published in Clinical Toxicology, 2023
Larissa Ybanez, Henry A. Spiller, Jaahnavi Badeti, Marcel J. Casavant, Natalie Rine, Nichole L. Michaels, Motao Zhu, Gary A. Smith
This study analyzed the following variables: year of exposure, age group, sex, generic substance category, major substance category, exposure type, level of health care received, and medical outcome. Age groups were categorized as <13 years, 13–19 years, 20–29 years, 30–39 years, 40–49 years, >49 years, and unknown. Cases listed as having an unknown age included those designated as unknown, ≤19 years, or ≥20 years. Based on the NPDS generic substance code, medications were categorized into three major substance categories as follows: 1) antipsychotics (includes atypical antipsychotics and phenothiazines), 2) benzodiazepines, or 3) other (includes other types of sedative-hypnotic/anti-anxiety or antipsychotic medications, i.e., buspirone, chloral hydrate, ethchlorvynol, barbiturates, meprobamate, methaqualone, sleep aids [over the counter only, excluding diphenhydramine], other types of sedative/hypnotic/anti-anxiety or antipsychotic drugs, and unknown types of sedative/hypnotic/anti-anxiety or antipsychotic drugs). Based on the number of substances involved, the exposure type was grouped into two categories: single-substance or multiple-substance exposures.