Overview of Chloral Hydrate

 First synthesized in 1832, chloral hydrate was the first depressant developed for the specific purpose of inducing sleep. Currently marketed as syrups or soft gelatin capsules, chloral hydrate takes effect in a relatively short time (about 30 minutes) and will induce sleep in an hour. In Victorian England, a solution of chloral and alcohol constituted the infamous "knockout drops" or "Mickey Finn."

    In the nineteenth century, however, chloral hydrate was often used by alcoholics whose sleep patterns had become disturbed by excessive drinking. The danger of such a potent mixture and the highly addictive properties of chloral resulted in "two cravings for a single craving," as detailed in 1880 in the Quarterly Journal of Inebriety. At the end of the century, the medical community was finally becoming aware of the problems associated with the increasing popularity of hypnotic drugs such as chloral hydrate.

    Chloral hydrate, like several other nineteenth-century depressants, found eager users among the literary and artistic community of Victorian England. Poet and painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti (in the picture) became a virtual recluse after his wife Elizabeth Siddal died of a laudanum overdose, and his grief and guilt led to a debilitating addiction to chloral hydrate, which lasted until his death in 1882. Writer W.E. Henley's 1875 poem "Interior" from his series "In Hospital," paints a grim picture of the use of chloral as a sedative agent frequently administered to dying patients by health-care workers.

    Despite the abuse and mis-administration of the sedative, chloral hydrate did fulfill a need for a drug that would ease sleeplessness due to pain or insomnia and is considered a positive medical discovery. At therapeutic doses (and without the introduction of alcohol and other depressants), chloral produces few negative side effects and is competent in promoting sleep. Although chloral hydrate is still encountered today, its use has declined with the introduction of other barbiturates.