Word: drugged
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Forget aspirin, penicillin or tranquilizers. The true wonder drug, in the eyes of all too many people, is one that promotes weight loss. For a while amphetamines seemed to provide that miracle, until doctors began warning of their severe side effects, which include increased blood pressure and heart rate, a dependency on the drugs, and bouts of depression when the pills are withdrawn. Now magical diet potions are being promoted in a new and, according to some doctors, alarming form. To make matters worse, they can be had for the asking at almost any drug counter...
These widely advertised nonprescription products contain two familiar ingredients, benzocaine and phenylpropanolamine (PPA). Benzocaine is a local anesthetic that has long been used to soothe skin irritations and itching. Added to special chewing gums or candy, it presumably dulls the taste buds and discourages eating. PPA, a drug related to the amphetamines, has enjoyed a long history as a nasal decongestant in cold remedies. In such popular diet pills as Dexatrim, Prolamine, Spantrol and Appedrine (which also contain caffeine), manufacturers say that it depresses the brain's "appetite center" in the hypothalamus...
...drugs really work? Yes, say the pharmaceutical houses, which got strong support earlier this year from a special advisory panel to the Food and Drug Administration. After reviewing drug company data, the study group found that benzocaine and PPA apparently were "safe and effective." It was a tentative finding, to be sure, and must still be accepted by the FDA, but manufacturers pressed ahead with intensified ad campaigns...
Doctors are especially concerned because people can obtain PPA without prescriptions. The drug companies themselves acknowledge that it should not be taken by anyone with heart disease, hypertension, diabetes or thyroid disease. These conditions often afflict the overweight, in many instances without their knowledge. PPA, alone or together with other drugs, such as monoamine oxidase inhibitors (antidepressants) or indomethacin (an antiarthritic), can induce severe episodes of hypertension. There has also been a case of kidney failure in a woman who had been taking a PPA preparation for a few weeks along with a few tablets of aspirin and acetaminophen...
...Food and Drug Administration and Federal Trade Commission have launched investigations, and local authorities are cracking down. Some people are suing. Few of the clinics are run by medically qualified skin specialists, but the trade is obviously lucrative. In 1978 Donald Underwood, an osteopath, is said by the New York State attorney general to have earned $1 million from his now shuttered Long Island clinics. Some operators are switching to a new ploy: offering to implant human hair fibers. But dermatologists warn that fibers collected from a number of people can provoke even more serious problems...