HEADACHE CURES[AL]
Harmful Effects of Acetanilid, Antipyrin and Acetphenetidin
The United States Department of Agriculture Bulletin[107] No. 126, issued July 3, 1909, sets forth the results of an investigation conducted by the Bureau of Chemistry with regard to the harmful effects of acetanilid, antipyrin and acetphenetidin. During recent years the use of these remedies and preparations containing them by the people at large, without the supervision of the physician, has increased rapidly and investigation has shown that coincidently there has been a marked increase in the number of cases of poisoning reported, in the number of fatalities, and in the number of instances of habitual use.
Since the passage of the Food and Drugs Act, June 30, 1906, the attention of the Department of Agriculture has been directed to this subject, particularly in connection with the branding of drug products containing one or more of these agents, and an attempt has been made to obtain full and reliable data with regard to their poisonous qualities with the object of furnishing information to the public which would enable them to understand that these remedies should be employed with caution in the absence of reliable medical advice.
The information obtained with regard to the number of an inquiry addressed to medical practitioners in the United States with regard to their personal experience with these drugs; and, second, the study of the cases of poisoning recorded in medical literature. Nearly a thousand letters, each containing eighteen questions, were addressed by the department to physicians throughout the country, the object being to secure information which would represent as closely as possible the conditions existing among the people at large so far as the harmful effects of the drugs in question are concerned. Four hundred replies were received.
The information obtained with regard to the number of instances quoted in medical literature in which poisoning, death, or habitual use has been known to result from the administration of acetanilid, antipyrin, and acetphenetidin is set forth in Section A of the accompanying table. The information summarized in Section B is based on the data submitted by physicians. Granting that the 525 physicians who did not reply had no cases to report, the question may profitably be asked, if 925 physicians have observed 814 cases of poisoning by these drugs, 28 deaths which are attributed to their use, and 136 instances of habitual use, how many such cases have in all probability been observed by the 125,000 physicians scattered throughout the United States? The summary, C, includes both the number of cases recorded in medical literature and those reported by physicians.
POISONING BY ACETANILID, ANTIPYRIN AND PHENACETIN
A.—Cases Recorded in Medical Literature
| POISONING. | DEATH. | HABITUAL USE. | |
| Acetanilid | 297 | 13 | 32 |
| Antipyrin | 488 | 10 | .. |
| Acetphenetidin | 70 | 3 | 1 |
| —— | — | — | |
| Total | 855 | 26 | 33 |