What is implied by the right to suicide?
Govert den Hartogh in What Kind of Death, 2023
Pentobarbital and other barbiturates, as well as opiates – but not the antimalaria drug chloroquine that Albert Heringa gave his mother – fall under international drug control conventions. If your state is not prepared to lift the barrier in any way, by ordering pentobarbital from Mexico or Peru you will disobey the law that forbids you to acquire it without a prescription, and you will invite a more serious breach of the law by the person who sells them to you. Should that be a decisive reason not to order them? This is not the place to discuss our obligations to obey the law in any depth, but it is relevant to note that on all minimally plausible accounts of such obligations we have no obligation always to obey every law, not even every law that aims at protecting or producing important goods and satisfies other minimum requirements of moral acceptability. Every explanation of our obligations specifies the area of its application and thereby provides its own limits. If, for example, we have a natural duty not to be a threat to each other by our very existence,52 that duty does not explain why we are obliged to abide by a legal prohibition of actions that cannot be considered threatening to others in any way. If we have duties of fairness to contribute to cooperative enterprises from which we benefit, they cannot imply duties to abstain from actions that do not transfer any costs to others. Etcetera, for each plausible account of (some of) our duties to obey the law.53
Hormones
S.J. Mulé, Henry Brill in Chemical and Biological Aspects of Drug Dependence, 2019
In studies in the rat A9-THC was found to stimulate ACTH secretion, as evidenced by depletion of adrenal ascorbic acid.139 This effect was enhanced by anesthetic doses of pentobarbital. In this respect A9-THC is different from morphine (see above). No evidence of tolerance was seen in these experiments after five daily injections of A9-THC (5 mg/kg). Assays of plasma corticosterone 45 minutes after injection of A9-THC into rats revealed marked pituitary-adrenal activation which persisted after repeated administrations for 8 days. The maximum elevation of plasma corticosterone levels occurred with doses between 4 and 16 mg/kg. Hypo-physectomy, six days before testing, completely abolished the response to A9-THC, indicating that the drug is not acting at the level of the adrenal gland. Premedication of the animals with pentobarbital (50 mg/kg) and morphine (20 mg/kg), which blocks the release of CRF in response to stressful stimuli,10 prevented the rise in plasma corticosterone induced by A9-THC (8 mg/kg). These last experiments indicate that hypothalamic stimulation is involved in the pituitary-adrenal activation by A9-THC.140 A hypothalamic locus of action was further supported by the observation that A9-THC doubled the urine output in these rats, suggesting inhibition of release of antidiuretic hormone.141
Antiepileptic Drugs Useful in Status Epilepticus
Carl L. Faingold, Gerhard H. Fromm in Drugs for Control of Epilepsy:, 2019
Intravenous phenytoin is next given at 50 mg/min (avoiding infusion in dextrose-containing i.v. solutions). For this and subsequent therapy, careful monitoring of cardiac and respiratory function must be maintained. If status epilepticus persists for more than 5 min following the completion of the phenytoin dose (20 min for an adult of average weight), an additional loading dose of phenytoin (7 mg/kg) is given. If seizures continue, we immediately administer i.v. phenobarbital, at a rate of approximately 130 mg every 2 to 3 min, followed by additional doses if status epilepticus persists. By this time almost all patients require intubation, ventilation, and intensive care. If the patient is paralyzed to facilitate ventilation, an EEG is used to evaluate whether the seizures are continuing. If so, patients are administered pentobarbital according to the protocol shown in Table 1.
The possible mechanism of Datura stramonium on pentobarbital-induced sleep in mice
Published in International Journal of Neuroscience, 2023
Mohammad-Ali Sobhanifar, Roghayeh Rashidi, Arezoo Rajabian, Fatemeh Forouzanfar, Maede Hasanpour, Mehrdad Iranshahi, Hassan Rakhshandeh, Azar Hosseini
A single dose of the hydro-alcoholic extracts, normal saline and diazepam were injected intraperitoneally (i.p.) to mice. After 30 min, pentobarbital was administrated at the dose of 30 mg/kg to induce sleep in mice. Righting reflex was used for the evaluation of sleep duration and sleep latency was interval between injection of pentobarbital and beginning of sleep. The mice were divided into different groups, each group consisting of 8 mice. The groups were involving normal saline (the negative control), diazepam (3 mg//kg) (the positive control), and hydro-alcoholic extracts (25, 50 and 100 mg/kg) groups. To evaluate of sleep-induction mechanism, flumazenil (1 mg/kg i.p.) and naloxone (5 mg/kg i.p.) were injected 30 min before the administration of diazepam or extract [8]. Additionally, the sleep-prolonging effect of three types of fraction (including NBF, WF and EAF) were evaluated to investigate the most effective fraction. The blood was collected from cardiac and the serum was separated to determine the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) level. Finally, the samples were kept at −80 °C until the measurement of protein.
Sleep-promoting activity of lotus (Nelumbo nucifera) rhizome water extract via GABAA receptors
Published in Pharmaceutical Biology, 2022
Yejin Ahn, Singeun Kim, Chunwoong Park, Jung Eun Kim, Hyung Joo Suh, Kyungae Jo
To measure the sleep latency time and duration, mice were subject to fasting for 24 h and then orally administered with LE. After 30 min, 42 mg/kg pentobarbital was injected intraperitoneally. Sleep latency time was defined as the time from intraperitoneal injection of pentobarbital to the loss of the positive reflex, while the recovery time from the loss of the positive reflex was considered as sleep duration. Animals that did not sleep within 15 min of pentobarbital administration were excluded from the experiment (maximally n = 1 per group in the present study). Mice were divided into the following groups (n = 8/group): the negative control (NC) group (saline-administered), positive control (PC) group (benzodiazepine alprazolam, 300 μg/kg) and LE-treated groups (80, 100, 120 and 150 mg/kg).
microRNA-26a-5p Prevents Retinal Neuronal Cell Death in Diabetic Mice by Targeting PTEN
Published in Current Eye Research, 2022
Rui Shi, Dan-Dan Liu, Ying Cao, Yu-Shun Xue
Mice were anesthetized with an intraperitoneal injection of pentobarbital with a dosage of 45 mg/kg. The eyes were immediately enucleated and fixed in 4% paraformaldehyde for 24 h, embedded in paraffin, and then cut into 3 μm sections. The tissue sections were then stained with H&E for microscopic evaluation of the retinal structure, followed by systematic morphometric analysis. Images of H&E sections were captured and analyzed with a Case viewer for quantification. Two peripheral and four central regions of the retina were also examined to ensure similar locations of the retina were measured for all eyes. Sections through the posterior eye segment were defined as the central retina, which was located at less than 300 µm from the optic head rim. The remaining sections were considered as the peripheral retina. Precise measurement of retinal thickness and quantification of the RGC number was then conducted to evaluate the retinal neuronal damage. A minimum of six sections (20 µm apart) per retina were imaged and used for quantification studies. These measurements were performed by two of the investigators (DDL and YC) independently.
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