Scooter~ Mayberry is accurate in his explanation,as always. This is the drug of choice for Fioricet/Fiorinal detox when in an in patient facility. If the detox is at home, the drug itself ( Fioricet ) is used in decreasing doses to taper off. It's difficult, at best, to taper but it can be done. The most important thing is the desire to be free of the drug.
Let us know how things are going. If I remember,your wife is coming home tomorrow.
Stay in touch!
its usually used for barbiturate detox. it has a very long half life so it is ideal for tapering someone off of shorter acting barbiturates. by very long....i mean the half life is hundreds of hours long. its much safer to detox from high doses of barbs with this medication to avoid seizures. the main area of concern is that a person would try to abuse it (and it potentially can be abused)....because of the very long half life, this medication can build up to toxic levels if a person trys to get 'high' off of it. it should be used exactly as directed. phenobarbital has been around for a long long time is often considered the safest barbiturate as far as abuse...althought people still DO abuse it. if i remember right (i might be slightly off on this) peak concentration is 12 hours after the initial dose. this means it does no good to try to get high with it...the ride up and back down is so slow that you don't get a very good high at all. this is important because the shorter acting barbs DO give a great high, so it takes that aspect out of the picture and yet helps prevent seizures, etc.
phenobarbital like the longer actin benzo's in as much as it was previously used for treatment of chronic anxiety. it works better because of its long half life. shorter acting barbs were used for breakthru anxiety or insomnia.
like i said, phenobarbital is ideal for a taper given the situation..but i highly suggest YOU be in charge of the medication and do not let her have access to any more than her daily dose. get a lock box.....at least until you know she's serious about getting clean.