Barbiturate-facilitated interviewing

Although investigators have advocated the use of barbiturate interviewing in a wide variety of clinical situations, the small number of controlled studies that have been reported would indicate limited applicability. Today's clinician should consider barbiturates for mobilizing stuporous, catatonic patients, for aiding in the diagnosis of intellectual impairment, and for lessening negative affect asociated with known stressful experiences. Barbiturates may be useful in other clinical settings, but the evidence to-date would indicated that non-drug factors, such as timing of the interview or the expectation that a special drug or an expert will have an effect, may be the more relevant variables. The use of sodium amobarbital to predict outcome has not received much attention and may be a fruitful area for future research.