Glutethimide and 4-OH glutethimide: pharmacokinetics and effect on performance in man.
The relationship between the plasma concentration of glutethimide (G) and the change from baseline of the standard error of the mean (deltaSDE) of a tracking test was determined in 7 volunteers. There was excellent positive correlation (r = 0.91) between log G and log deltaSDE and good correlation between log  G and deltaSDE (r = 0.77). The metabolite, 4 hydroxyglutethimide, did not contribute significantly to the effect of G administered in therapeutic doses. No trend in performance versus level was found with 5 other tests (finger tapping, card sorting, digit substitution, subtraction, and subjective perception of drowsiness). Although the numbers were small, when the volunteers were divided into smokers (3) and nonsmokers (4) G decreased tracking ability to a greater extent in smokers than in nonsmokers.
D000328:Adult; D001143:Arousal / Q000187:drug effects; D005260:Female; D005984:Glutethimide / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000097:blood* / Q000494:pharmacology; D006801:Humans; D006900:Hydroxylation; D007700:Kinetics; D008297:Male; D008606:Mental Processes / Q000187:drug effects; D009048:Motor Skills / Q000187:drug effects; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis
D005984:Glutethimide