Word: equanil
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Greek word for body. Last week, in a Manhattan skyscraper, Dr. Frank Berger, research director of New Jersey's Wallace Laboratories, announced that his firm was beginning to market a new wonder drug-comparable, he hoped, in its effects on the body, to his earlier discovery, meprobamate (Miltown, Equanil), in its effects on the mind. The new tablet is a powerful muscle relaxant with some unusual painkilling qualities. Tried on more than 1,400 patients for almost two years, it has proved effective for many kinds of pain in the muscles and around joints-charley horse, tennis elbow, stiff...
There are already 15 brand names under which meprobamate is being sold, with applications pending for 65 more. Atraxin leads the field with 1957 sales of $1,250,000; next comes Harmonin, then Equanil; the old original Miltown is fourth. It is priced at ten tablets for 83 ?; most home-grown Japanese brands are twelve tablets for 56?, but they are only half as potent. Osaka manufacturers have tried to convince consumers that "because Japanese are smaller and weigh less than Westerners, they need only a half-size tranki." Then, working both sides of the street, they blandly urge buyers...
...There is danger in the carefree use of the most popular "happiness pill," meprobamate (trade-named Miltown and Equanil), warned the A.M.A.'s Council on Drugs. Side effects, including allergic reactions, shaking chills and fever, have been reported; the drug should be used under medical supervision, with the same care as other tranquilizers...
Reno's release from tension was first suggested by former Giant Mel Ott, now a Detroit sportscaster, who noticed that tenseness was hurting Bertoia's swing at the plate. Tiger Trainer Jack Homel took the message to Reno, and the young man (22) promptly tried Equanil, later switched to Sedamyl. Reno, it turned out, was not the first Detroit athlete to try tranquilizers. Says Osteopath Richard Thompson, team physician for the Detroit Lions football team: "We used them on at least five Lions last year, and we intend to continue to use them." The Tigers' Dr. Luther...
...century's great breakthroughs in psychiatry (TIME, March 7, 1955), the use of the tranquilizers has spread to masses of mine-run neurotics and other people vexed with problems and pressures. For a time, when most states permitted an unlimited number of refills for tranquilizer prescriptions, Equanil and Miltown (trade names for meprobamate) were the hottest items in many a big-city pharmacy. The situation became so alarming that states are tightening regulations, putting tranquilizers on the same non-refillable prescription basis as barbiturates...