Talk:Chloroform

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Summary sheet: Chloroform

Chloroform
Chemical Nomenclature
Common names	Chloroform, Trichloromethane
Class Membership
Psychoactive class	Dissociative / Depressants
Routes of Administration
WARNING: Always start with lower doses due to differences between individual body weight, tolerance, metabolism, and personal sensitivity. See responsible use section. ⇣ Inhaled Dosage Duration Total 3 - 8 minutes Onset 0 - 1 minutes Peak 15 - 30 seconds Offset 1 - 5 minutes After effects 15 - 30 minutes DISCLAIMER: PW's dosage information is gathered from users and resources for educational purposes only. It is not a recommendation and should be verified with other sources for accuracy.
Interactions

Chloroform (also known as trichloromethane), is an organic compound with formula CHCl₃. It is a colorless, strong-smelling, dense liquid. It is a volatile solvent that was used as a medical anesthetic during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It is one of the four chloromethanes and a trihalomethane. It is a powerful anesthetic, euphoriant, anxiolytic and sedative when inhaled or ingested.

History and culture

The anaesthetic qualities of chloroform were first described in 1842 in a thesis by Robert Mortimer Glover, which won the Gold Medal of the Harveian Society for that year. Glover also undertook practical experiments on dogs to prove his theories. Glover further refined his theories and presented them in the thesis for his doctorate at the University of Edinburgh in the summer of 1847. The Scottish obstetrician James Young Simpson was one of the persons required to read the thesis, but later claimed to have never read the thesis and to have come to his conclusions independently.

The use of chloroform during surgery expanded rapidly thereafter in Europe. In the 1850s, chloroform was used by the physician John Snow during the birth of Queen Victoria's last two children. In the United States, chloroform began to replace ether as an anesthetic at the beginning of the 20th century; however, it was quickly abandoned in favor of ether upon discovery of its toxicity, especially its tendency to cause fatal cardiac arrhythmia analogous to what is now termed "sudden sniffer's death". Some people used chloroform as a recreational drug or to attempt suicide.

Use of chloroform as an incapacitating agent has become widely recognized, bordering on clichéd, due to the popularity of crime fiction authors having criminals use chloroform-soaked rags to render victims unconscious. However, it is nearly impossible to incapacitate someone using chloroform in this manner. It takes at least five minutes of inhaling an item soaked in chloroform to render a person unconscious. Most criminal cases involving chloroform also involve another drug being co-administered, such as alcohol or diazepam, or the victim being found to have been complicit in its administration. After a person has lost consciousness due to chloroform inhalation, a continuous volume must be administered and the chin must be supported to keep the tongue from obstructing the airway, a difficult procedure typically requiring the skills of an anesthesiologist.

Chemistry

This chemistry section is incomplete. You can help by adding to it.

Pharmacology

This pharmacology section is incomplete. You can help by adding to it.

Subjective effects

This subjective effects section is a stub. As such, it is still in progress and may contain incomplete or wrong information. You can help by expanding or correcting it.

Disclaimer: The effects listed below cite the Subjective Effect Index (SEI), an open research literature based on anecdotal user reports and the personal analyses of PsychonautWiki contributors. As a result, they should be viewed with a healthy degree of skepticism.

It is also worth noting that these effects will not necessarily occur in a predictable or reliable manner, although higher doses are more liable to induce the full spectrum of effects. Likewise, adverse effects become increasingly likely with higher doses and may include addiction, severe injury, or death ☠.

Physical effects

• • Stimulation at low to high doses, Sedation at heavy doses.
  • Muscle relaxation
  • Tactile suppression - Chloroform makes body tingling, lasts longer than other effects.
  • Spontaneous bodily sensations - This effect can reach up to level 3. Sensations are like before fainting.
  • Physical euphoria
  • Dizziness
  • Motor control loss
  • Changes in felt gravity

Visual effects

• Distortions

  • Perspective distortion

  Hallucinatory states

  • Internal hallucination

Cognitive effects

• • Anxiety suppression - Chloroform is strong anxiolytic and quickly suppresses anxiety.
  • Cognitive euphoria
  • Compulsive redosing - Chloroform's short duration causes powerful compulsive redosing.
  • Amnesia - At higher doses it can occur.
  • Appetite enhancement

Auditory effects

• • Auditory distortion

Disconnective effects

• • Physical disconnection
  • Cognitive disconnection
  • Depersonalization

After effects

• When chloroform used little it doesn't make such after effects.
  • Headache - On offset it becomes more noticable.
  • Tactile suppression
  
  Chloroform's short duration makes people more redosing, that makes after effects such as:
  • Headache
  • Nausea - Nausea can be very strong and can cause vomiting.
  • Appetite suppression
  These effects last much longer than normal after effects.

Experience reports

There are currently 0 experience reports which describe the effects of this substance in our experience index.

Additional experience reports can be found here:

• Erowid Experience Vaults: Chloroform

Toxicity and harm potential

The exact toxic dosage is unknown. Potential problems include:

• Lack of Oxygen: Brain injury and suffocation can result from lack of oxygen. When used as an anesthetic, chloroform is always administered in combination with oxygen. Never use chloroform in any manner that does not provide for adequate oxygen intake.
• Sudden Sniffing Death: In humans, anesthesia with chloroform may result in death due to respiratory and cardiac arrhythmias and failure.
• Possible Carcinogen: Chloroform is possibly carcinogenic to humans.
• Irritant: Chloroform irritates mucous membranes which produces gastroenteritis with persistent nausea and vomiting.
• Liver toxicity: Chloroform may be toxic to liver.

It is strongly recommended that one use harm reduction practices when using this substance.

Tolerance and addiction potential

Chloroform presents cross-tolerance with all dissociatives, meaning that after the consumption of chloroform all dissociatives will have a reduced effect.

Dangerous interactions

This dangerous interactions section is a stub. As such, it may contain incomplete or invalid information. You can help by expanding upon or correcting it.

Warning: Many psychoactive substances that are reasonably safe to use on their own can suddenly become dangerous and even life-threatening when combined with certain other substances. The following list provides some known dangerous interactions (although it is not guaranteed to include all of them).

Always conduct independent research (e.g. Google, DuckDuckGo, PubMed) to ensure that a combination of two or more substances is safe to consume. Some of the listed interactions have been sourced from TripSit.

Legal status

Chloroform is unscheduled in nearly all parts of the world.

See also

• Responsible use

External links

(List along order below)

• (Sciencemadness wiki)
• (Wikipedia)
• (Erowid Vault)

Literature

• APA formatted reference

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