Dexamyl

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Dexamyl (or Drinamyl in the UK) was a brand name combination drug composed of sodium amobarbital (previously called amylbarbitone and its brand name Amytal) and dextroamphetamine sulfate (Dexedrine) within the same pill. It was widely abused, and is no longer manufactured.[1]

First introduced in 1950 by

portmanteau of dextro
- amphetamine and amyl- barbitone.

Dexamyl was discontinued in 1982 by SKF in favor of

tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs) which were recently developed and shared treatment indications with Dexamyl yet lacked the high dependence potential and abuse liability
which characterized long-term Dexamyl usage.

History

British prime minister Anthony Eden was prescribed Dexamyl; he was using it to treat abdominal pain. It has been suggested that the drug impaired his judgment during the Suez Crisis.[2] The failure of his Suez policies led to his ousting while he was recovering in Jamaica.

In Britain during the early 1960s the drug was taken by "tired housewives", and was also abused by youths who took excessively large doses and nicknamed the triangular blue tablets "purple hearts" or "blues."

amphetamine psychosis. They were widely abused.[4]

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Dexamyl spansules—a clear and green capsule containing green and white "beads"—became popular as a street-drug upper nicknamed "Christmas trees", a reference to its appearance. [5]

In his autobiography My Life of Absurdity, author Chester Himes writes of his use of Dexamyl in the mid-1950s. He also writes that he stopped taking the drug after his friend Vandi Haygood died from "steady doses of Dexamyl".[6]

Dr. George C. Nichopoulos was indicted in May 1980 for having improperly prescribed Dexamyl and phenmetrazine (Preludin) to the singer Jerry Lee Lewis, despite knowing he was addicted to them.[7]

Dr. Patrick A. Mazza,

Dexedrine, and Preludin for Steve Carlton, Larry Christenson, Tim McCarver, Pete Rose, Larry Bowa, and Greg Luzinski. The charges against Mazza were dropped after he contended that he had provided the prescriptions in good faith to the baseball players at their request.[8] The pill was writer Terry Southern's drug of choice for many years.[9]

See also

  • Amfecloral, a single molecule with a similar effect (due to metabolites).
  • Desbutal, another pharmaceutical containing an amphetamine and a barbiturate.
  • D-IX, an experimental drug containing methamphetamine, cocaine & oxycodone.
  • The song "Big Black Smoke" by the Kinks makes reference to the drug with the lyric "And every penny she had was spent on purple hearts and cigarettes."
  • Dexy's Midnight Runners

References

  1. ^ The Primrose To Drug, Charleston Sunday Gazette-Mail, March 28, 1965, p. 54.
  2. PMID 15879438
    .
  3. ^ Marking, Havana (16 November 2008). "Danger all ways". The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, Ltd. Retrieved 25 July 2021.
  4. OCLC 232956890
    .
  5. ISSN 0362-4331
    . Retrieved 2018-04-25.
  6. OCLC 39384647
    .
  7. S2CID 70545709
    .
  8. ^ "Charges dismissed in Phils' drug case". The New York Times. Associated Press. 5 February 1981. p. B7. Retrieved 2018-04-25.
  9. ^ Stephenson, Will (March 22, 2016). "Nights of Terror, Days of Weird". Oxford American. Retrieved 2018-04-25.
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