CONVULSIONS IN NONEPILEPTIC PATIENTS ON WITHDRAWAL OF BARBITURATES, ALCOHOL AND OTHER DRUGS

Abstract

Convulsions in nonepileptic persons after sudden withdrawal of hypnotic drugs are relatively unknown. Experience with 7 patients observed almost simultaneously has the value of an experiment and gives the starting point for a more systematic discussion of "withdrawal seizures." The 7 patients whose cases are described here belonged to a group of 50 or 60 very disturbed patients in Pilgrim State Hospital who had been kept under continuous sedation with soluble barbital U. S. P. for months or years, as reported by Polatin.¹Treatment of chronically disturbed patients with mental disease by prolonged use of sedatives, such as bromides and barbiturates, has been recommended by various authors; no narcotic but merely a sedative effect is desired in such treatment. To these patients soluble barbital (sodium barbital, or sodium diethylbarbiturate) was given in aqueous solution, the average dose being 20 to 30 grains (1.3 to 1.95 Gm.) daily. In April