TRANQUILLISERS
SIR,—Your correspondent Mr. Weeden has made a mistake in citing chlorpromazine as an example of a tranquilliser which should be made available to the general public because it is both useful in tension states and safe.
Most responsible clinicians condemn its use for simple anxiety or tension, finding it ineffective, al- though in treatment of psychotic patients it has a definite place.
As to its safety, amongst toxic effects which are well documented are nausea, vomiting, diarrhcea, fall in blood pressure leading to loss of consciousness, a syndrome like paralysis agitans, jaundice, disappear- ance of white blood cells (sometimes fatal), fever, epileptic fits, sleepiness, skin rashes and other un- pleasant effects. It also potentiates alcohol and bar- biturates, which can be very dangerous.
A similar list of dangers can be made out for dexamphetamine (dexedrine) which, incidentally, is not a tranquilliser, as well as for all the other new tranquillisers.
It is unlikely that most people would feel it de- sirable to make such new drugs freely available to the public, who seem to have sufficient difficulty in handling alcohol intelligently, although it would cer- tainly be interesting to see the results, particularly if the vendors advertised them according to current standards of responsibility.
Connoisseurs of correspondence in the press will have noted the alacrity with which Mr. Wceden im- putes nasty motives to other people and will have recognised it as a characteristic of letters written from a firm grounding in ignorance.—Yours faith- fully,
D. R. LAURENCE 29 Ennerdale Road, Kew Gardens, Richmond, Surrey
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