Word: disulfiram
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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About the time disulfiram (Antabuse) was hailed by Danish doctors as a wonder drug for alcoholism, plant physicians began hearing complaints that workers recently exposed to dust in the manufacture of calcium cyanamide*could not take a drink-it made them sick. Disulfiram proved a disappointment: it was too dangerous for widespread use, required a doctor's close supervision. But last week a medicinal variant of cyanamide was released in Canada for prescription sale, on the strength of researchers' reports that it is almost as potent as disulfiram and far safer...
...citrated calcium carbimide (CCC). A single tablet sensitizes the patient so fast that if he takes a drink within as little as ten minutes he will feel flushed and short of breath, and get a headache-all severely enough to make him turn against the bottle. Unlike disulfiram, CCC rarely causes vomiting, a marked drop in blood pressure, or other undesirable side effects. But the effects of CCC usually wear off faster, so if the alcoholic misses his medicine for a couple of days, he may fall off the wagon...
There is also the matter of the lost weekend. Given with disulfiram (Antabuse), chlorpromazine straightens out a victim of DTs within two days instead of the usual six. Some doctors find it almost equally effective alone, and its antiemetic effect can be a boon after a simple, heavy binge...
...best thing they have found for controlling the nausea which often follows the taking of drugs, and occurs regularly in such disorders as cancer, ear inflammation and uremia. Also, 2601-A straightens out drinkers who have too violent a reaction from the combination of alcohol and disulfiram (Antabuse...
...Richmond, Va. doctors warned in the A.M.A. Journal that in addition to its other hazards, Antabuse (the drug to combat alcoholism, now officially renamed disulfiram) should not be given to alcoholics with heart trouble. Taken with a little alcohol, as it must be to bring on the reaction which makes patients swear off liquor, the drug puts a strain on any heart...