Risk of drug dependence and abuse posed by barbiturate-containing analgesics.

Concern has been raised that the barbiturate component of barbiturate-containing analgesics constitutes a public and individual health problem because of information from literature before 1966 concerning preclinical and clinical abuse liability, and the dependence risk of barbiturates. The safety of barbiturates alone and in combination in analgesics was reviewed. In addition, information from manufacturers of combination products were …