Sorry for my laziness in not researching its proper name. Check out the Wikipedia article. When I saw the structure of it and its purported effects I was just as suspicious as you, I mean wtf a simple aromatic ketone in my gaba receptor? BLASPHEMY! I had always thought of gaba-ergic substances in terms of alcohols, carboxylic acid, amines, with maybe a few aldehyde trimers. I thought carbonyls might be in there but were inconsequential placeholders that could just as easily be replaced with an alkyl.
Wikipedia-
"In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, acetophenone was used in medicine.[6] It was marketed as a hypnotic and anticonvulsant under brand name Hypnone. The typical dosage was 0.12 to 0.3 milliliters.[7] It was considered to have superior sedative effects to both paraldehyde and chloral hydrate.[8] In humans, acetophenone is metabolized to benzoic acid, carbonic acid, and acetone.[9]"
I would really like to see someone who knows more about the fine points of receptor binding to do an SAR on gaba, just look at paraldehyde and tell me it doesn't bear an uncanny resemblance to some homologes of the barbituate skeleton, perhaps ethylamine may hold some activity if we apply the paraldehde logic to barb analogues. That could lead us to interesting conclusions, perhaps if we find ethylamine less potent than alcohol like how ghb > gaba in vitro if this is true then we might theorize that some of this potency is determined by ease of ionization in the offending amino or hydroxyl group, so easier H+donation means better potency. That would explain why chloral hydrate is stronger than etoh, more chlorine, more stabilized + charges on the alpha and beta carbon, so therefore a more stable RO- H+ situation, perhaps then it isn't really about the H+ formation but the ease of a more than average polarity on the RC=O bond, a more positive charge on the oxygen bearing carbon would induce this. This would be why tbutanol is so much stronger than ethanol (toxicity aside) the nucleophilic methyls on the alpha carbon suck off electrons from it and stabilize alkoxide formation, even though it wouldn't be able to form a resonant double bond it would still be better than just etoh's low acidity. Barbituats' oxygen charges would be ramped up by the N's withdrawing electrons when in salt form. Final this would explain acetophenone is the oxygen bearing carbon could afford to let oxygen pull its electrons a bit closer because it could always borrow some from the phenyl ring. When you look at it it might just form a hydrate like choral does, the phenyl just replaces the triflouromethyl group.
But back to the point, an SAR diagram would be usefull. I kinda just vomited out a bunch of speculations, They seem like they make sense to me (for all that's worth). I think something like this could help
www.bluelight.ru/vb/showthread.php?t=167978
Anyway, I'll spare youof more musings
