Methohexital: uses, dosing, side effects & brands
Methohexital is a medicine sold in the U.S. under one brand. Below: what the FDA label says, every product that contains it, what the pills look like, and its recall record.
Key facts
- Available as
- Injectable
- Sold as
- Brevital Sodium
- Prescription?
- Prescription only
- Generic available?
- Not in our catalog
- Boxed warning
- Boxed warning
How methohexital is dosed
From the FDA label for Brevital Sodium (application NDA011559). Other methohexital products — different forms, different strengths — are dosed differently. Follow the label for the one you were prescribed.
Facilities for assisting ventilation and administering oxygen are necessary adjuncts for all routes of administration of anesthesia. Since cardiorespiratory arrest may occur, patients should be observed carefully during and after use of BREVITAL. Age- and size- appropriate resuscitative equipment (i.e., intubation and cardioversion equipment, oxygen, suction, and a secure intravenous line) and personnel qualified in its use must be immediately available. Preanesthetic medication is generally advisable. BREVITAL may be used with any of the recognized preanesthetic medications. Preparation of Solution FOLLOW DILUTION INSTRUCTIONS EXACTLY. Freshly prepare solutions of BREVITAL and use promptly. Reconstituted solutions of BREVITAL are chemically stable at room temperature for 24 hours. Diluents ONLY USE BACTERIOSTATIC-FREE DILUENT – Recommended diluents are based on route of administration (see Dilution Instructions ). Incompatible diluents: Lactated Ringer’s Injection Dilution Instructions 1% solutions (10 mg/mL) should be prepared for intermittent intravenous and rectal administration; 0.2% solutions (2 mg/mL) should be prepared for continuous intravenous drug administration; 5% solutions (50 mg/mL) should be prepared for intramuscular administration. Contents of vials should be diluted as follows: FOR INTERMITTENT INTRAVENOUS and RECTAL ADMINISTRATION The preferred diluent for…
Methohexital side effects
Side effects associated with BREVITAL are extensions of pharmacologic effects and include: Cardiovascular Circulatory depression, thrombophlebitis, hypotension, tachycardia, peripheral vascular collapse, and convulsions in association with cardiorespiratory arrest Respiratory Respiratory depression (including apnea), cardiorespiratory arrest, laryngospasm, bronchospasm, hiccups, and dyspnea Neurologic Skeletal muscle hyperactivity (twitching), injury to nerves adjacent to injection site, and seizures Psychiatric Emergence delirium, restlessness, and anxiety may occur, especially in the presence of postoperative pain Gastrointestinal Nausea, emesis, abdominal pain, and liver function tests abnormal Allergic Erythema, pruritus, urticaria, and cases of anaphylaxis have been reported rarely Other Other adverse reactions include pain at injection site, salivation, headache, and rhinitis For medical advice about adverse reactions contact your medical professional. To report SUSPECTED ADVERSE REACTIONS, contact Par Health at 1-800-828-9393 or FDA at 1-800-FDA-1088 (1-800-332-1088) or www.fda.gov/medwatch/.
Who shouldn’t take methohexital
BREVITAL is contraindicated in patients in whom general anesthesia is contraindicated, in those with latent or manifest porphyria, or in patients with a known hypersensitivity to barbiturates.
Methohexital drug interactions
Prior chronic administration of barbiturates or phenytoin (e.g. for seizure disorder) appears to reduce the effectiveness of BREVITAL. Barbiturates may influence the metabolism of other concomitantly used drugs, such as phenytoin, halothane, anticoagulants, corticosteroids, ethyl alcohol, and propylene glycol-containing solutions.
Every methohexital product we track (1)
Same active ingredient — different manufacturer, form, price and FDA recall record. That last one is what our independent score measures.
Only one: Brevital Sodium.
Methohexital recalls
From the FDA Enforcement database. A recall covers specific lots — not the drug as a whole.
How long methohexital keeps
No methohexital label we read sets a separate limit for after opening, but they do specify how it must be stored — and the stability behind any date assumes those conditions.
Does methohexital expire? The in-use limits and storage rules from its labelsMethohexital and breastfeeding
From LactMed, the US National Library of Medicine’s Drugs and Lactation Database — quoted, not rewritten.
Full LactMed record for methohexital: levels in milk, effects in breastfed infants, and the drugs it would consider insteadAmounts of methohexital in milk are very small. Existing data indicate that no waiting period is required before resuming breastfeeding after a single dose of methohexital. Breastfeeding can be resumed as soon as the mother has recovered sufficiently to nurse. When a combination of anesthetic agents is used for a procedure, follow the recommendations for the most problematic medication used during the procedure.
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, record revised December 21, 2020. LactMed states its information is not a substitute for professional judgement.
What people report to the FDA about methohexital
The FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) collects reports from patients and clinicians. It holds 10 reports naming methohexital, and the FDA flagged 50% of those reports as serious. The effects reported most often — leaving out reports about overdose, misuse or the condition being treated, which dominate the raw list for common medicines:
- supraventricular tachycardia3 reports
- atrial fibrillation2 reports
- autonomic nervous system imbalance2 reports
- bradycardia2 reports
- anxiety1 reports
- back pain1 reports
- cardio-respiratory arrest1 reports
- delirium1 reports
Read these as a signal, not a rate. A report does not mean methohexital caused the effect — anyone can file one, and many describe people taking several medicines for several conditions. Crucially there is no denominator: FAERS does not record how many people took the drug, so these counts cannot be turned into “X% of patients” — a bigger number often just means a more widely used or more talked-about drug. Duplicates exist, and publicity drives reporting. For what is actually established, read the FDA label section above.
Source: openFDA drug/event (FAERS), retrieved July 25, 2026.
Related calculators
Frequently asked questions
What is methohexital?
Brevital Sodium (Methohexital Sodium) is a medication supplied as an injection, powder, lyophilized, for solution.
Can you take methohexital with other medicines?
It depends on the medicine. We check it against the FDA labels rather than guessing: our interaction checker searches each drug's own label for the other and quotes what it says, naming the section it came from. Run methohexital against whatever else you take — and remember that a label not naming a drug is not the same as that combination being safe.
What forms does methohexital come in?
Across the brands we track, methohexital is currently marketed as injectable, per the FDA's National Drug Code Directory. Each form is dosed differently — follow the label for the exact product you were prescribed.
Is there a generic methohexital?
We do not currently list a generic-labelled methohexital product. That does not always mean none exists — it means none appears under a generic name in the FDA data we track. Ask your pharmacist.
Has methohexital been recalled?
The FDA's Enforcement database lists 2 recall records whose product description mentions methohexital. The most recent: Methohexital Sodium (Jun 24, 2026). A recall applies to specific lots, not to the drug as a whole — check the record for the affected lot numbers.
Cite this page
- APA
- pharmaranks. (2026, July 24). Methohexital: uses, dosing, side effects & brands. https://pharmaranks.com/drugs/methohexital
- MLA
- “Methohexital: uses, dosing, side effects & brands.” pharmaranks, 24 July 2026, https://pharmaranks.com/drugs/methohexital.
We summarise public FDA and NIH sources — for a clinical claim, cite the primary source we link to as well.
Sources: FDA openFDA drug label, National Drug Code Directory, and Enforcement (recall) database. This page reproduces public FDA data and is not medical advice. Dosing is set by your prescriber.
Read the full FDA label for methohexital on DailyMed (NIH) ↗ — including its boxed warning in full.