On Cannabis, Chloral Hydrate, and Career Cycles of Psychotrophic Drugs in Medicine

Abstract

This article compares the careers of two psychotropic drugs in Western psychiatry, with a focus on the nineteenth century: Cannabis indica and chloral hydrate. They were used by doctors for similar indications, such as mania, delirium tremens, and what we would now call drug dependence. The two show similar career paths consisting of three phases: initial enthusiasm and therapeutic optimism; subsequent negative appraisal; and finally, limited use. These cycles, which we term "Seige cycles," are generally typical of the careers of psychotropic drugs in modern medicine. However, differences in the careers of both drugs are also established. The phases of chloral show relatively higher peaks and lower valleys than those of cannabis. Chloral is the first typically "modern" psychotropic drug; a synthetic, it was introduced in 1869 at a time of growing asylum populations, pharmaceutical interests, and high cultural expectations of scientific medicine. Cannabis indica, introduced in the 1840s, is typically a "premodern" drug steeped in the climate of cultural Romanticism. We conclude that the analytical concept of the Seige cycle is a useful tool for future research into drug careers in medicine.

Fragilités guerrières – Les fous parisiens dans la Grande Guerre

“…Sans évo-quer des conséquences directes pour la santé des patients, les rapports des pharmaciens laissent également apparaître à partir de 1916 des carences, notamment de sucre et d'alcool, deux produits essentiels pour de nombreuses préparations : le pharmacien de Ville-Évrard écrit dès la troisième année de la guerre qu'il n'est plus à même de respecter toujours « les exigences du formulaire légal » ( [25], p. 140). La dernière année de la guerre, certains médicaments font complètement défaut : ainsi à l'Asile Clinique, les médecins ne peuvent plus pendant plusieurs mois recourir au chloral, un sédatif très utilisé en psychiatrie depuis le dernier quart du 19 e siècle [26].…”

Psychotropic Drug Use: Between Healing and Enhancing the Mind

“…Both conditions were characterized by overstrained, restless nerves and took on prominence against the background of a modern industrial society in rapid flux. Not only in psychiatric practice but within medicine as a whole, synthetic drugs like chloral hydrate and subsequently the barbiturates became widely used, the family doctor's familiar recourse in dealing with common symptoms from insomnia to anxiety and the vapours [11,16,18].…”

“…The making and taking of psychotropic drugs, whether on medical prescription or as self-medication, whether marketed by pharmaceutical companies or clamoured for by an anxious population, has been an integral part of the twentieth century [10,11]. In this modern era of speed, uncertainty, pleasure and anguish the boundaries between healing and enhancing the mind by chemical means have been redefined once and again [12,13].…”

A Digital Humanities Approach to the History of Culture and Science: Drugs and Eugenics Revisited in Early 20th-Century Dutch Newspapers, Using Semantic Text Mining

“…Both topics represent a meeting ground between science and society with shi ing cultural and political connotations. Drug use and eugenics as controversial social practices represent not only an important component of our cultural heritage, but also key elements of European modernisation (Hahn, 2000;Lombardo, 2001;Snelders et al, 2006;Reulecke, 2007;Levine and Bashford, 2010;Turda, 2010).…”