ABSTRACT
Despite the long-standing, though very limited, clinical use of γ-hydroxybutyric acid (GHB) (Mamelak and Webster 1981; Mamelak et al. 1986; Lapierre et al. 1990; Scrima et al. 1990; Kleinschmidt et al. 1998; Gallimberti et al. 1992; Poldrugo and Addolorato 1999) and its recently recognized abuse potential (Dyer 1991; Chin et al. 1992; Friedman et al. 1995; Stell and Ryan 1996; Galloway et al. 1997; Tunnicliff 1997), and in contrast to the large body of biochemical and behavioural data (reviewed in Bernasconi et al. (1999) and Maitre (1997)), there is only a surprisingly small number of electrophysiological studies that have investigated the cellular actions of GHB on neuronal excitability, and even fewer that have characterized the underlying changes in membrane conductances.
