"PEP” DRUG PRELUDIN

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28980, 22 August 1959, Page 13

"PEP” DRUG PRELUDIN

Warnings On Use

(Rec. 8 pjn.) LONDON. August 20. A London specialist urged today that the “pep-up” drug preludin be listed as a poison because it could cause hallucinations. One woman patient who became depressed and took 60 tablets in one day imagined she could hear fairground music, the sound of a baby crying and also her husband speaking to her, the Registrar of the Maudsley Hospital, London (Dr. John Evans) wrote in the professional weekly, the “Lancet.” Two weeks later, after being discharged from hospital and while taking eight or nine tablets daily, the woman heard imaginary cars driving up at night, church bells ringing and a man’s voice saying she was going to die, he added. As a result she handed her baby over to the police. Another woman who took 10 to 15 tablets a day believed the Nazis were coming to kill her. She blocked up the windows, stacked furniture against the doors and peeped through the keyholes. Dr. Evans baid that within six months 16 patients who had taken preludin became ill- Twelve had psychotic disturbances. “Because of its social consequences preludin should be defined as a drug of addiction for the same reasons as cocaine and marijuana,” he said. The British Pharmaceutical Society had advised chemists not to dispense preludin except on doctors’ prescriptions, but the tablets were still not difficult to obtain. Three of his patients had told him that it was frequently used in certain London coffee bars and clubs. Preludin is listed as a slimming drug. It is mainly used to “pep” people up, overcome depression or restore energy.