Approved * Anxiety * Epilepsy * Insomnia * Wada test Unapproved/off-label When given slowly by an intravenous route, sodium<unk>  has a reputation for acting as a so-called truth serum. Under the influence, a person will divulge information that under normal circumstances they would block. This was most likely due to loss of inhibition. As such, the drug was first employed clinically by Dr. William Bleckwenn at the University of Wisconsin to circumvent inhibitions in psychiatric patients. The use of<unk>  as a truth serum has lost credibility due to the discovery that a subject can be coerced into having a "false memory" of the event. The drug may be used intravenously to interview patients with catatonic mutism, sometimes combined with caffeine to prevent sleep. It was used by the United States armed forces during World War II in an attempt to treat shell shock and return soldiers to the front-line duties. This use has since been discontinued as the powerful sedation, cognitive impairment, and dis-coordination induced by the drug greatly reduced soldiers' usefulness in the field.<unk>  was once manufactured in the US by Eli Lilly Pharmaceuticals under the brand name Amytal in capsule form. It was discontinued in the early 80s largely replaced by the benzodiazepine family of drugs.<unk>  was also widely<unk> used, known on the streets as "blue heavens" because of their blue capsule.
Amobarbital
Heptobarbital
Pentobarbital
Ethallobarbital
Secobarbital
Hexobarbital
Butobarbital
Phenobarbital