Article by Ariel Gershon published in History of Psychiatry
Congratulations to Ariel Gershon, Meds2019 for his "How Amytal Changed Psychopharmacy: Off-Label Uses of Sodium Amytal (1920-40)" article published in the History of Psychiatry (2019).
Ariel's research was supported by an AMS Hannah Summer Studentship, under U of T's Hannah Professor Edward Shorter, and was one of several medical history projects undertaken by Ariel during this four years at Schulich Medicine.
Citation:
Ariel Gershon and Edward Shorter, "How amytal changed psychopharmacy: off-label uses of sodium amytal (1920-40)," History of Psychiatry 2019 May 30:957154X19847605. doi: 10.1177/0957154X19847605. [Epub ahead of print]
Abstract:
In the early 1930s, American neurologist and psychiatrist William Bleckwenn used sodium amytal to render catatonic patients responsive, so that he could engage in talk therapy. Bleckwenn found a new, 'off-label' use for this anaesthetic and anxiolytic medication in psychiatry and, in doing so, allowed for important discoveries in the diagnosis and treatment of catatonia. Pharmacological textbooks reveal a 'label', while the Index-Catalogue of the Library of the Surgeon-General's Office reveals explorations 'off label' of barbiturates. The 'off-label' use of barbiturates facilitated talk therapy, heralding an important shift in psychopharmacy. Drugs previously only used as chemical restraints became a form of treatment for specific psychiatric diseases. The current strictures against off-label prescribing are overprescriptive and close off innovative new uses.
