Pentobarbital is a short acting barbiturate that is available as both a free acid and a sodium salt, the former of which is only slightly soluble in water and ethanol. One trade name for this drug is Nembutal®, coined by Dr. John S. Lundy, who started using it in 1930, from the structural formula of the sodium salt—Na (sodium) + ethyl + methyl + butyl + al (common suffix for barbiturates). | url = https://www.aana.com/archives/imagine/1997/08imagine97.asp}}

Uses

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Approved

Pentobarbital's FDA approved human uses include treatment of seizures and preoperative (and other) sedation; it is also approved as a short-term hypnotic.

In France, it is used in the treatment of insomnia, and as a preanesthetic.

Unapproved/Investigational/Off-Label

Off-label uses of pentobarbital include reduction of intracranial pressure in Reye's syndrome, traumatic brain injury and induction of coma in cerebral ischemia patients.

Veterinary medicine

In veterinary medicine sodium pentobarbital—traded under names such as Sagatal—is used as an anaesthetic. Pentobarbital is an ingredient in Equithesin.

Veterinary Euthanasia

It is used by itself, or more often in combination with complementary agents such as phenytoin, in commercial animal euthanasia injectable solutions. Trade names include Euthasol, Euthatal, Beuthanasia-D and Fatal Plus.

Metabolism

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Pentobarbital undergoes first-pass metabolism in the liver and possibly the intestines.}}

Drug Interactions

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Administration of alcohol, opioids, antihistamines, other sedative-hypnotics, and other central nervous system depressants will additively increase the sedation caused by pentobarbital. The S-isomers of fluoxetine and its active metabolite, norfluoxetine, reverse the down-regulation of allopregnanolone by pentobarbital, thus reversing the loss of righting reflex, at doses 10-50 times lower than that required for serotonin reuptake.| url = http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/101/16/6222}}

Tricyclic antidepressants decrease serum levels of pentobarbital.

References and End Notes

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Anticonvulsants | barbiturates

Pentobarbital | ペントバルビタール | Pentobarbital