Relationship Between Sleep, Biotransformation Rates, and Plasma Levels of Pentobarbital and Secobarbital in Animals

Abstract

Female mice destroyed pentobarbital faster, exhibited shorter sleeping times, and woke at higher total body levels than with secobarbital. Female rats showed no significant difference in sleeping times between these two drugs. Male rabbits and female dogs slept shorter times, and woke at higher plasma levels with pentobarbital than with secobarbital. There was no statistically significant difference in rate of destruction between these two drugs in these two species. In the mouse, rate of destruction of both drugs was dependent on the size of dose, the higher the dose, the lower the rate of destruction. These two drugs had different dose-sleeping time response curves in mice, rabbits, and dogs, but not in rats.