How Do CNS Depressants Work? Uses, Side Effects, Drug Names

For the last section of our chapter on depressants, we will cover a type of drug that many people might overlook. Inhalants are solvents or other materials that produce vapors that elicit psychoactive effects. While a wide variety of products can be used as inhalants, most induce CNS depression through similar mechanisms of action. Barbiturates are positive allosteric modulators of GABAA receptors. By binding to areas other than the orthosteric site of the receptor, they enhance GABA activity. In particular, they increase the amount of time that the chloride ion channel remains open when GABA binds to the receptor....

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