Hexobarbital

Overview
Hexobarbital is a barbiturate derivative having hypnotic and sedative effects. It was used in the 1940s-1950s as an agent for inducing anesthesia for surgery and has a relatively fast onset of effects and short duration of action. However it can be difficult to control the depth of anesthesia with hexobarbital which makes it quite dangerous, and it has now been replaced by safer drugs in human medicine, usually thiopental would be the barbiturate of choice for this application these days. Hexobarbital was also marketed as a rapid-acting sleeping pill with short duration (tradenames: Citopan, Evipan and others, usually in 250 mg strength tablets). Hexobarbital is still used in some scientific research.