Abstract |
Four of the most disabling human diseases are syphilis, malaria, schizophrenia, and manic-depressive illness. The history of the development of treatments for these seemingly unrelated disorders intersects at several points. Treatment of tertiary cerebral syphilis ( general paresis) by inducing fever with malaria led to a Nobel Prize. Although attempts to synthesize quinine, a plant product effective against malaria, failed, these efforts encouraged industrial organic chemists to synthesize many useful substances, including dyes, antibiotics, and antihistamines. The aniline-derived dye methylene blue was a member of a new class of polycyclic chemicals, the phenothiazines. Efforts to modify phenothiazines to find an antimalarial agent also failed but led to novel antiemetic- sedative antihistamines, including promethazine, promazine, and eventually chlorpromazine--the first effective treatment for schizophrenia and mania. Chlorpromazine has antipsychotic and antimanic properties, and it revolutionized the therapeutics of psychotic illnesses.
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Authors | Frances R Frankenburg, Ross J Baldessarini |
Journal | Harvard review of psychiatry
(Harv Rev Psychiatry)
Vol. 16
Issue 5
Pg. 299-307
( 2008)
ISSN: 1465-7309 [Electronic] United States |
PMID | 18803105
(Publication Type: Historical Article, Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't)
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Chemical References |
- Antimalarials
- Antipsychotic Agents
- Phenothiazines
- Chlorpromazine
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Topics |
- Antimalarials
(history)
- Antipsychotic Agents
(history)
- Bipolar Disorder
(history)
- Chlorpromazine
(history)
- Europe
- History, 19th Century
- History, 20th Century
- History, 21st Century
- Humans
- Hyperthermia, Induced
(history)
- Malaria, Cerebral
(history)
- Neurosyphilis
(history)
- Phenothiazines
(history)
- Schizophrenia
(history)
- United States
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