ReviewCurrent opinion in pharmacology2006
Unravelling the brain targets of gamma-hydroxybutyric acid.
Review in Current opinion in pharmacology, 2006. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 44 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
44 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 118 citations in OpenAlex.
- Cognitive Impairment Following Clinical or Recreational Use of Gammahydroxybutyric Acid (GHB): A Systematic Review.Current neuropharmacology · 2022Pooled it
- Gamma-hydroxybutyrate to promote slow-wave sleep in major depressive disorder: a randomized crossover trial.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2025Trial
- Efficacy and Safety of Sodium Oxybate in Isolated Focal Laryngeal Dystonia: A Phase IIb Double-Blind Placebo-Controlled Cross-Over Randomized Clinical Trial.Annals of neurology · 2025Trial
- Sodium Oxybate in Alcohol-Responsive Essential Tremor of Voice: An Open-Label Phase II Study.Movement disorders : official journal of the Movement Disorder Society · 2023Trial
- A novel therapeutic agent, sodium oxybate, improves dystonic symptoms via reduced network-wide activity.Scientific reports · 2018Trial
- Gamma-Hydroxybutyrate Increases Resting-State Limbic Perfusion and Body and Emotion Awareness in Humans.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2017Trial
- An open-label study of sodium oxybate in Spasmodic dysphonia.The Laryngoscope · 2017Trial
- Effects of amisulpride on human resting cerebral perfusion.Psychopharmacology · 2013Trial
- Regulation of glucagon secretion in normal and diabetic human islets by γ-hydroxybutyrate and glycine.The Journal of biological chemistry · 2013Trial
- Enhancing slow wave sleep with sodium oxybate reduces the behavioral and physiological impact of sleep loss.Sleep · 2010Trial
- Sterol-like natural products and other secondary metabolites with antimicrobial and antiplasmodial activities fromRSC advances · 2026Article
- Current knowledge on the pathophysiology of idiopathic hypersomnia and potential mechanisms of action for low-sodium oxybate treatment.Journal of clinical sleep medicine : JCSM : official publication of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine · 2025Review
- Sodium Oxybate (SMO) as Part of Agonist Opioid Treatment in Alcohol-Heroin-Addicted Patients.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Article
- Computational modeling of frequency-dependent neocortical response to thalamic neurostimulation in epilepsy.PLoS computational biology · 2025Article
- An Overview of the Putative Structural and Functional Properties of the GHBh1 Receptor through a Bioinformatics Approach.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Calcium, Magnesium, Potassium, and Sodium Oxybates Oral Solution: A Lower-Sodium Alternative for Cataplexy or Excessive Daytime Sleepiness Associated with Narcolepsy.Nature and science of sleep · 2022Review
- Rational approaches for the design of various GABA modulators and their clinical progression.Molecular diversity · 2021Review
- Designer drugs: mechanism of action and adverse effects.Archives of toxicology · 2020Review
- Commonalities and Differences in NREM Parasomnias and Sleep-Related Epilepsy: Is There a Continuum Between the Two Conditions?Frontiers in neurology · 2020Article
- Mechanisms and Pharmacotherapy for Ethanol-Responsive Movement Disorders.Frontiers in neurology · 2020Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Gamma-hydroxybutyric acid (GHB) is a naturally occurring gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) metabolite that has been proposed as a neurotransmitter/neuromodulator that acts via its own receptor (GHBR). Its exogenous administration, however, elicits central nervous system-dependent effects (e.g. memory impairment, increase in sleep stages 3 and 4, dependence, seizures and coma) that are mostly mediated by GABAB receptors. The past few years have seen important developments in our understanding of GHB neurobiology: a putative GHBR has been cloned; a transgenic model of GHB aciduria has been developed; GABAB receptor knockout mice and novel GHB analogs have helped to characterize the vast majority of exogenous GHB actions mediated by GABAB receptors; and some of the cellular mechanisms underlying the dependence/abuse properties of GHB, and its ability to elicit absence seizures and an increase in sleep stages 3 and 4, have been clarified. Nevertheless, the physiological significance of a brain GHB signaling pathway is still unknown, and there is an urgent need for a well-validated functional assay for GHBRs. Moreover, as GHB can also be metabolized to GABA, it remains to be seen whether the many GABAB receptor-mediated actions of GHB are caused by GHB itself acting directly on GABAB receptors or by a GHB-derived GABA pool (or both).
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.