HORMOTONE AND HORMOTONE WITHOUT POST-PITUITARY
Report of the Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry.
“Hormotone,” of the G. W. Carnrick Company, is advertised as “A pluriglandular tonic for asthenic conditions.” “Hormotone Without Post-Pituitary” is recommended for use “in neurasthenic conditions associated with high blood pressure.” These preparations are sold in the form of tablets for oral administration. The Council declares these preparations inadmissible to New and Nonofficial Remedies because: (1) Their composition is semisecret (Rule 1); (2) the therapeutic claims are unwarranted (Rule 6); (3) they are sold under names not descriptive of their composition but suggestive of indiscriminate use as “tonics” (Rule 8); (4) in the light of our present knowledge the routine administration of polyglandular mixtures is irrational (Rule 10). In explanation of this action, the Council authorized publication of the report which appears below.
W. A. Puckner, Secretary.
Each tablet of “Hormotone” (G. W. Carnrick Co., New York City) is said to contain 1⁄10 grain of desiccated thyroid and 1⁄20 grain of entire pituitary, together with the hormones of the ovary and testes—the amounts and the form in which the latter are supposed to be present are not given. From this it will be seen that the only definite information given to the medical profession regarding the composition of Hormotone is that it is a weak thyroid and a still weaker pituitary preparation.
What results can be anticipated from one or two tablets three times daily (the recommended dose of Hormotone) each containing 1⁄10 grain of thyroid and 1⁄20 grain entire pituitary? Such doses of thyroid may, of course, have a beneficial action in a limited number of cases of myxedema and cretinism. An extract of the posterior lobe of the pituitary (Liquor Hypophysis, U. S. P., for example) will, when injected subcutaneously or intramuscularly, have a pronounced effect on the parturient uterus; its action on certain other forms of smooth muscle will be much less certain. But the oral administration (for which Hormotone is recommended) of the posterior lobe of the pituitary has not been shown to have any such effect. The use of the anterior lobe in doses of 1 to 4 grains (doses very many times larger than those recommended for the entire gland in Hormotone) is in the experimental stage and its only probable value seems to be in those cases of known gland deficiency.
As to the other alleged ingredients of Hormotone—hormones of the ovary and testes, amounts not stated: all physicians know the uncertainties attending the use of ovarian preparations and the serious question as to whether testicular extracts have any therapeutic value. Whatever may be the physicians views as to the probable therapeutic value of these organs, the first thing he desires to know is how much of the substance he is giving and from what part of the gland it is obtained.
So much for the facts; yet the physician is asked to jump from this region of solid fact into a sea of hypothesis; to believe that small amounts of the well-known drugs thyroid and pituitary, plus an unknown amount of unknown hormones of the testes and ovary are of great value in conditions that in themselves are often purely hypothetical. He is asked to believe that this combination has virtues in such conditions as “hypofunction of the adrenal system,” neurasthenia, the “fatigue syndrome,” amenorrhea, dysmenorrhea, “natural and artificial menopause,” sexual neuroses, cold extremities, cardiac asthenia, low blood pressure, infantilism, sterility, melancholic conditions, obesity, anorexia, anemia, slow metabolism, constipation, psychasthenia, lowered virility and the sexual neuroses of the unmarried, hysteria following functional exhaustion of the nerve centers, frigidity, etc., etc., especially if he guesses that the trouble is due to a “pluriglandular disturbance,” “glandular hypofunction,” an “adreno-pituitary deficiency,” suboxidation, etc.
The physician is invited to use Hormotone because, among other reasons, each alleged constituent is said to be “in physiologic sympathy and therapeutic harmony with the others,” and further, because:
“Pluriglandular therapy has the endorsement of high authorities, is both logical and effective and Hormotone is a splendid example of it. It will be seen at its best where the patient lacks snap and vim and vigor. Asthenic conditions necessarily indicate hypofunction of the adrenal system ...” etc.
“The use of gland extracts in the treatment of aplasias of the pluriglandular system has become an established therapeutic measure of miraculous potency (Bayard Holmes: The Internal Secretory Glands, Lancet-Clinic, Sept. 19, 1914).”
The G. W. Carnrick Company also advertises a “Hormotone Without Post-Pituitary,” each tablet of which is said to contain 1⁄10 grain desiccated thyroid, and to “present” “hormone bearing extracts of thyroid, anterior pituitary, ovary, and testes.” This product is just as irrational as “Hormotone.”—(From The Journal A. M. A., Aug. 16, 1919)