Talk:Γ-Hydroxybutyric acid

A Redirect and Disambiguation

Someone has written an article on a musical group, Georgia Homeboy. Aside from being a poor article, this makes three references to the slang term. The musical group and bagpipe references are much less distinct than the drug. I propose a creation of a redirect to here, and a disambiguation link. Anyone else? --TKE 21:29, 22 Sep 2006 (UTC)

GHB and Analogs

Can we use information from here? http://www.usdoj.gov/ndic/pubs3/3669/odd.htm

There is good information on GBL, BD, GVL, GHV. Also there is an excellent artical in www.emedicine.com which can be found here: http://www.emedicine.com/emerg/topic848.htm I have taken the liberty to email the principal author and asked him to consider editing the content in the wiki.

Terrell

That usdoj site is hardly a reliable source of information. It oozes bias and prejudice.

The emedicine page appears factual and balanced however.

excessive word linking

It seems like there's excessive word linking, especially under the "recreational use" section. Is it really necessary to link words like 'Australian,' 'US,' 'ice,' '1990s,' and 'rectum.' These words are only indirectly related to GHB and they aren't things people would be likely to want to look up from a GHB article. If no one contests this I'll removed them. Nathan J. Yoder 21:33, 12 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Agreed. Oberiko 21:36, 12 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Ice cubes

The link supporting the line about ice cubes appears to go nowhere. Perhaps someone who knows what ought to be behind it can find the missing reference, and fix the link? -GTBacchus ^(talk)

GHB addiction

(suggested addition + background info) After long term addiction, a sudden stop can even be dangerous as this also causes severe hypertensia and arythmeia and severe insomnia. To counteract these effects, physicians often treat the latter with zolpidem (first choice) but this effect wears off after 2-3 hours, making nitrazepam a better candidate for the first 2 or 3 nigths. In severe cases, oxazepam can be chosen for the first night.

During the first hours/day, a mild dose of diazepam (once or twice 1x 2.5mg) may complement this treatment. (Diazepam can ofcourse also be chosen as a sleeping agent in a somewhat higher doze (since apart from the physical discomfort (sweatiness, coldness, tremors, hypertensia and arythmeia there is a psychological discomfort). Also interaction and doses of a combination treatment should be carefully considered when a combination is chosen - the combination is only meant as a build-down path.

The danger of course is to replace one addiction with the other, but the physical after effects usually subside after 48-64 hours and when kept to the maximum of 3 days, these sleeping agents should not pose an addiction threat, but during the first without any sleeping agent it will be more difficult to fall asleep - this is usually true for any treatment of insomnia.

Martixer.

The best means of withdrawal from GHB is tapered dosage. This is an effective method for anyone who actually wants to stop or reduce their intake.

Regarding the recent edit

What are references for these bits? it is the first time i hear about something like this. In particular, the second bit sounds extremely suspicious. [1] for example lists the same doses for rats as for humans.

"however, it has been recently demonstrated that one third of known GHB-related deaths involved no other intoxicant, and happen mostly as a result of respiratory depression (from its inhibitory effects on the breathing centers in the brainstem) and cessation of breathing, but also due to choking on vomit and asphyxiating."

"However, rats are much more resistant to GHB than humans: a rat also requires at least 10x the dose, on a weight basis, that a human requires in order to become intoxicated."

i am reverting to the previous edit.

Quite right. Those paragraphs are total rubbish. One of the reasons that GHB alone is not lethal is that it slows the body's metabolism and reduces oxygen requirements simultaneously with lowering the respiration rate. This is why the human body produces GHB when deprived of oxygen.

Carbohydrate?

The article describes GHB as a carbohydrate. I initially thought this could not be the case, because GHB does not have a formula of the form C_n(H₂O)_n and therefore is not a monosaccharide nor is it a derivative of one. Should the word carbohydrate be replaced with metabolite, biochemical or something similar?

Ben Mills 22:10, 9 March 2006 (UTC)

You are correct, I noticed this and came to the talk page to see if there was some sort of holy war about this that resulted in this nomenclature being used. It's not a carbohydrate, fixed. 24.181.29.106

Date Rape drug

I believe there are no known cases of date rape involving GHB. It was merely a convenient, albeit pointless excuse for making a relatively safe and beneficial drug illegal. Pointless because GHB is trivial to make and someone who intends to engage in date rape is hardly likely to care whether the drug is legal.

I agree. Moreover I have corrected a fair amount of the article, toned down some of the alarmist content(for example the impression that GHB can kill when taken by itself, it cannot.), and tried to fully represent scientific studies about this substance. As you can see, it is all referenced where needed.

As far as 'date rape' substances are concerned, the oldest used substance is alcohol, but I havent seen any bans for that recently, moreover, alcohol produces toxic byproducts, GHB does not. KCM

A letter I received from an RC patroller, and our response.

Hi there, I've noticed that you are inputting new information into Wikipedia off of this site: http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/ghb/ghb_faq.shtml . While we appreciate good edits to articles at Wikipedia, copying and pasting information is not the way to go. Please do your own Original Research on the topic and refer back and edit the article accordingly. Thanks. Schizmatic 22:56, 25 March 2006 (UTC)

Dear Sir,

I appreciate youre concern. However, the site you refer to was not the one I used. It itself is a 'copy and paste' - as you put it - of the Cognitive Enhancement Research Institute's site (www.ceri.com).

Since I made references to the appropriate articles and websites, we believe that no rules were broken. All the of the scientific studies (Chin, Krutzer et al) are in the public domain.

We have been studying GHB for over ten years, and am the Chair of the UK health pressure group, 'Campaign for Ethical Medicine' (CEM). A group that champions cheap, and effective medicine, putting people before profit. We have in the past lobbied the UK government in particular to reverse it's schedule change in 2003 of GHB, amongst varied concerns over the UK drug agency 'NICE' over the excessive proposed regulation of the supplement industry. We also take strong exeption to youre term of 'vandalism'. As a professional group of volunteers, we strive to cross check and examine any material we come accross, so we cannot see how this particular edit was 'vandalism'.

I have personally spoken to one of the researchers at CERI, - Steven Wm. Fowkes - on two occasions to seek his counsel on how to proceed to attempt to reverse the schedule change of GHB in the UK.

As to youre question of 'research' our research is thus: searching and compiling, and editing down relevant paragraphs or sections of scientific papers over GHB. This can originate from libraries, medical organisations, journals such as 'New Scientist', 'Nature' or in this case, a well documented and trusted website (www.ceri.com). 'Original' research over GHB has already been done, there is over forty years of research. In any case, 'original' research is often done by trawling through existing documented evidence, and compiling and republishing.

Seeing as a proportion of the previous edit was actual quotes from published studies, one cannot avoid some degree of 'copy and paste' I dare say that the edit as it now stands, has been copied and pasted or re-worded from some medium or other.

In closing, I am of the opinion that although the edit as it stands now is well intentioned, in places it is innaccurate, alarmist, and does not contain enough references to peer published papers. We will be contacting www.ceri.com and ask Steven if he will condsider editing the Wiki entry on GHB. If he does not wish to, I will formally ask his permission to use his research and website in an aid to correct the article. I do not see any reason he will refuse. Both Steven and I share the same passion over lifting the veil of demonisation over GHB.

Expect even more accurate and referenced edits to the GHB article in future. We would appreciate it if any changes to that edit, to be factual and free of alarmist tone.

With all due respect, CEM has researched and studied orphan drugs such as phenytoin, GHB, Nootropics and nutritional supplements for a respectable period. Wiki's staffers or admins, have not.

Best regards,

Keith C Macrae Bsc

Chair, Campaign for Ethical Medicine.

Is Category:Psychoactive drugs applicable?

I ask if GHB shouldn't also be categorized under this category, instead of or in addition to its current categorization under Drugs. __meco 12:30, 24 April 2006 (UTC)