Minor tranquilziers [sic] and the Valium epidemic: prescription drug use and abuse in the United States, 1906-1979

Grant Fruhwirth

Minor Tranquilizers and the Valium Epidemic: Prescription Drug Use and Abuse in the United States, 1906-1979 explores the misuse of prescription drugs that followed the emergence of psychotropic drugs in the mid twentieth century. With no government regulation regarding medicinal products prior to 1906, competition between "respectable" drug manufactures and those labeled 'patent' medicine manufacturers was fierce. The Progressive Movement and the New Deal Coalition ushered in consumer protections in 1906 and 1938, respectively, creating a division between drugs that could be obtained legally only with a prescription and those that could be purchased over-the-counter. The new authority granted physicians in the 1950s was coupled with a transformation in the treatment of mental health. Mild depression and anxiety had been treated by psychoanalysis, natural remedies such as getting back to nature, or self-medication in various forms. Emerging minor tranquilizers in the mid-1950s allowed doctors to treat such diseases by prescribing convenient, safe, non-habit-forming pills. As these pills became increasingly popular, and with Americans' anxieties rising from the threat of nuclear war and the rigid, gender specific, obligations of American society, men and women flocked to doctors for help. Throughout the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s pharmaceutical companies advertised various minor tranquilizers, and later benzodiazepines, to doctors through medical journals. Doctors became more accustomed to the presence of minor tranquilizers, causing the number of prescriptions to increase and provided pharmaceutical companies enormous wealth. Antidepressants remain a major source of income for pharmaceutical companies. Valium, marketed by Hoffman--La Roche, became the most widely prescribed prescription drug in the late 1960s and 1970s. It was also the most abused, leading people to emergency rooms around the nation. Awareness of Valium abuse grew throughout the late 1960s and 1970s, earning the label of epidemic. Middle- and upper-class women comprised the majority of Valium prescriptions. Yet once addicted, physically and psychologically, these users differed from those considered deviant users. The distinctions between prescription drug users as victims, and users as deviant created by Valium remain to the present day, effecting how society perceives, and more importantly treats, abusers of prescription drugs.

Minor tranquilziers [sic] and the Valium epidemic: prescription drug use and abuse in the United States, 1906-1979

Files and links (1)

Abstract

Metrics

Details