To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.annemergmed.2005.10.011 Byline: Mauro A.M. Carai (a), Giancarlo Colombo (a), Lawrence S. Quang (b), Timothy J. Maher (c), Gian Luigi Gessa (a) Abstract: Recent reports on fatalities associated with overdoses from 1,4-butanediol (1,4-BD), a precursor of the drug of abuse [gamma]-hydroxybutyric acid (GHB), pose the need for investigations focusing on possible pharmacologic remedies. Accordingly, the present study investigates whether 4-methylpyrazole (4-MP; also termed fomepizole and Antizol), an inhibitor of alcohol dehydrogenase (the enzyme involved in the first step of the conversion of 1,4-BD into GHB), and the [gamma]-aminobutyric acid B (GABA.sub.B) receptor antagonist (2S)(+)-5,5-dimethyl-2-morpholineacetic acid (SCH 50911), provides protection against 1,4-BD-induced mortality in CD1 mice. Author Affiliation: (a) Department of Neuroscience, School of Medicine, University of Cagliari, and National Research Council, Institute of Neuroscience, Cagliari, Italy (b) Neuropharmacology and Neurobehavioral Laboratory, Division of Pediatric Pharmacology and Critical Care, Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital, Cleveland, OH (c) Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Boston, MA Article History: Received 18 July 2005; Revised 15 September 2005; Accepted 19 October 2005 Article Note: (footnote) Supervising editor: Stephen R. Thom, MD, PhD, Author contributions: MAMC conceived the study, designed and conducted the experiments, analyzed the data and drafted the manuscript. GC contributed to the conduction of the experiments and manuscript revision. LSQ and TJM contributed to design the experiments and analyze the data; they also revised the manuscript. GLG supervised the conduct of the study and contributed to manuscript revision. MAMC takes responsibility for the paper as a whole., Funding and support: This study was supported in part by the Italian National Research Council (CNR) and by the National Institutes of Health (NIH)/National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) grant #1R03DA14951-02 (LSQ)., Reprints not available from the authors.