Table 1.
Relation between potency of different anaesthetic drugs and allopregnanolone tested at identical conditions
| Substance (Sub) | Dose (mmol·g−1) | Optimal rate (mmol·g−1·min−1) | Relative dose Sub/Allo |
|---|---|---|---|
| Allopregnanolone | 44 | 13 | – |
| Pregnanolone | 33 | 11 | 0.75 |
| Flurazepam | 186 | 39 | 4.2 |
| Propofol | 75 | 56 | 1.7 |
| Barbiturates dissolved and calculated as sodium salts | |||
| Hexobarbital rac | 243 | 58 | 5.5 |
| Hexobarbital (+)-S | 178 | 58 | 4.1 |
| Hexobarbital (−)-R | 572 | 58 | 13.0 |
| Narcobarbital rac | 223 | 46 | 5.1 |
| Narcobarbital (+) | 188 | 46 | 4.3 |
| Narcobarbital (−) | 259 | 46 | 5.9 |
| Pentobarbital rac | 225 | 20 | 5.1 |
| Thiopental | 145 | 38 | 3.3 |
| Methohexital | 49 | 35 | 1.1 |
All basic doses are those that can induce a burst suppression of 1 s or more in the EEG at induction of anaesthesia tested with the optimal rate (mg·kg−1·min−1) earlier defined for each of the substance as the dose-rate, which gives a minimum dose to reach the criterion. Rac = racemate (+) and (−) indicate optical isomers. Data calculated from table 2 in Zhu et al. (2001) where the references to the different studies involved are given.