Posted by ed_uk on November 25, 2004, at 15:00:29
Hi,
Not so long ago, I had an interesting conversation with a retired psychiatric nurse who worked at Storthes Hall in the 1950s. Storthes Hall was a massive psychiatric hospital which has now been turned into student accomodation. Everyone locally knows about Storthes Hall. When I was little and being a nuisance my grandma used to say, 'you'll send me to Storthes Hall'.
I asked the nurse about the treatments they used to use. Mainly, people were just sedated and that was about it. Paraldehyde (Paral) was very popular, it left a very strong smell on the patients' breath. Apparantly, everyone hated chlorpromazine (Thorazine/Largactil) but Librium 'seemed to make people better'.
Does anyone on psycho-babble have any experience with the old sedative-hypnotics? ...... Maybe they were prescribed for severe insomnia.... or maybe you've been taking them for the last 60 years because you can't get off them. Recently, when I was working in a pharmacy, I noticed that most of the people taking barbiturates were in their 90s. One woman was 100!
I'd be interested to know how effective people have found the old sedatives for the treatment of insomnia... or maybe even anxiety, especially if benzos weren't satisfactory.
Has anyone taken any of these old (and rather toxic) drugs......
Secobarbital (eg. Seconal)
Amobarbital (eg. Amytal)
Butabarbital (eg. Soneryl)
Pentobarbital (eg. Nembutal)
Cyclobarbital (eg. Phanodorm)
Ethchlorvynol (eg. Placidyl)
Glutethimide (eg. Doriden)
Tuinal pulvules
Chlormethiazole (eg. Heminevrin, Distraneurine, Hemineurine)
Methaqualone (Quaalude, Sopor, or Mandrax-a combination with diphenhydramine)
Chloral hydrate/betaine (eg. Noctec, Welldorm)
Triclofos (Tricloryl)
Meprobamate (Equanil, Miltown)
Ethinamate (Valamin)
Paraldehyde (Paral)
.... or even a bromide!!!All the best.....
Ed.
poster:ed_uk
thread:420220
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20041123/msgs/420220.html