Clinical Drug Experience Knowledgebase

Mebutamate (Capla, Dormate) is a biscarbamate drug that has anxiolytic, sedative, and antihypertensive effects. It is marketed under many trade names, including Capla and Dormate. Its preparation was reported in a 1959 US patent to Carter Products. It is less well known that mebutamate is also hypnotic. In a 1967 study, L. Tetreault, P. Richer, and J. M. Bordeleau in Montreal found that, at a dose of 600 mg, mebutamate has hypnotic properties that “affect the duration and quality of sleep induction, and the duration and quality of sleep, without disturbing the state of the subject upon awakening and during the morning.” A higher dose (900 mg) did not change the overall effect, which was “consistently between that of secobarbital at 200 mg and 100 mg.” The authors did not observe any significant side effects. Mebutamate is one of many GABAergic drugs which act via allosteric agonism of the GABAA receptor at the β-subreceptor similar to barbiturates. In contrast, benzodiazepines act at the α-subreceptor. As such, carbamates and barbiturates, possess analgesic properties which the benzodiazepine class of drugs does not.   ^NCATS