APA Dictionary of Psychology

n. a short- to intermediate-acting barbiturate formerly in common use as a sedative and hypnotic drug. At one time, it was also used in psychotherapy to make clients less inhibited and therefore able to express themselves more effectively, but this practice was subsequently discredited. Pentobarbital is still used in the induction of anesthesia and very rarely in the treatment of a specific epileptic condition, but it has no mental health applications today. Like all barbiturates, it has been supplanted by safer agents, such as the benzodiazepines. U.S. trade name: Nembutal.