HOLADIN AND BILE SALT MIXTURES
Holadin and Bile Salts-Fairchild; Capsules of Bile Salts, Succinate of Soda and Phenolphthalein-Fairchild; Capsules of Holadin, Bile Salts and Phenolphthalein-Fairchild; Capsules of Holadin, Succinate of Soda and Bile Salts-Fairchild.
Report of the Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry
To explain the omission from New and Nonofficial Remedies of certain mixtures, the Council has authorized publication of the matter which appears below.
W. A. Puckner, Secretary.
The Council holds that complex mixtures of remedial agents are from every point of view inimical to therapeutic progress and therefore to the public welfare. They are especially objectionable because it is impossible accurately to determine the effects which follow the simultaneous administration of a number of drugs having dissimilar actions, and because the practice of prescribing such mixtures tends to discourage careful consideration of the special needs of individual patients without which there can be no rational drug therapy. On the contrary, with the use of such mixtures, therapeutic treatment becomes haphazard and mere guesswork.
The Council, appreciating that long established customs cannot be changed at once, has applied Rule 10 concerning the recognition of mixtures with the greatest leniency compatible with consistency. When there has been a reasonable doubt concerning the value of a mixture it has frequently directed that Rule 10 should not apply, pending further clinical trial of such mixture.
In no instance has subsequent experience shown that a strict interpretation of the rule would have worked hardship or injustice. The Council feels that there is no longer any warrant for the admission of complex mixtures to New and Nonofficial Remedies or for the retention of any that have been admitted unless definite evidence of the therapeutic value of such combinations is available. In accordance with this decision, several mixtures now described in New and Nonofficial Remedies will be omitted as soon as the three year period for which articles are accepted has expired.
The following preparations are included in New and Nonofficial Remedies, 1918: