EFFECTS OF CHRONIC BARBITURATE INTOXICATION ON MOTIVATION AND MUSCULAR COORDINATION

1 August 1953

journal article
other
Published by American Medical Association (AMA) in Archives of Neurology & Psychiatry

Vol. 70 (2) , 180-188
https://doi.org/10.1001/archneurpsyc.1953.02320320046004

Abstract

INVESTIGATIONS of chronic barbiturate intoxication have yielded considerable information on physiological functioning,¹intellectual impairment, and personality changes²during the course of addiction. The present study is an attempt to add to this information by delineating several aspects of readiness to respond (motivation) and muscular coordination during the course of chronic intoxication with certain barbiturates and during the periods of withdrawal of drugs and of recovery from the drug effects. Clinical studies from this laboratory¹have amply shown that acute or chronic intoxication with large amounts of barbiturates (secobarbital, pentobarbital, amobarbital) produces nystagmus, incoordination, ataxia in gait and station, and coarse tremors of the hands. The muscular incoordination of intoxicated persons is so obvious that the measures obtained in the present study were recorded mainly for purposes of quantification and comparison. However, the effects of changing motivations upon the disorganized behavior observed during intoxication and withdrawal have not

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