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For Nausea & DTs. To combat nausea and vomiting—whether from heaving seas, bumpy airplanes, pregnancy, kidney disease, cancer or heavy X-ray treatment—chlorpromazine seems far superior to other drugs. It is the only one that helps victims of dysautonomia (TIME, June 7), where the cause of vomiting is deep in the nervous system. It is credited with saving several lives in especially stubborn cases of vomiting during pregnancy or from kidney disease. And chlorpromazine seems to be the answer in many cases of persistent hiccuping.
There is also the matter of the lost weekend. Given with disulfiram (Antabuse), chlorpromazine straightens out a victim of DTs within two days instead of the usual six. Some doctors find it almost equally effective alone, and its antiemetic effect can be a boon after a simple, heavy binge.
There are about 400 research projects now under way in the U.S. testing chlorpromazine on man and beast to find the limits of its usefulness and its possible dangers. Late this month 12,000 doctors at the A.M.A.'s annual convention in San Francisco will have a chance to see exhibits describing what has been learned. Papers on the subject are being published. Though the drug is now available on prescription, it is recommended so far only for vomiting and in mental illness because much has yet to be learned about it.
*Alias 2601.A (TIME, Oct. 12), trademarked Thorazine in the U.S., alias Largactil in France, Britain and Canada, Megaphen in Germany and Ampliactil in Argentina.