[1] As with other chemoreceptor agonists, it is a potent emetic at doses above those normally used in management of barbiturate overdose although emesis and aspiration are a concern during treatment.

The product can be rationalized by assuming first aldol condensation of ketone and active methylene compound followed by dehydration to give 3.

The observed product 6 can be rationalized by assuming loss of the carboxamide under strongly basic conditions.

Bemegride was the drug which suspected serial killer Dr John Bodkin Adams who failed to prescribe correctly to his patient Gertrude Hullett.

Hullett took an overdose of barbiturates on 19 July 1956 but Adams only gave her a single 10cc dose of bemegride three days later on the 22nd, despite having acquired 100cc for her treatment.