MISUSE OF SEDATIVES.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4565, 6 November 1875, Page 1 (Supplement)

MISUSE OF SEDATIVES.

(From the Queen.) One of the evils arising from the high pressure of the life which modem society enforces more or less relentlessly on all of us is the necessity, real or supposed, for the use of sedatives to remedy, or at least to palliate, the sleeplessness and excitement induced by overwork in the pursuit of wealth or pleasure. The more excitable bodily and mental temperament of women renders them far more subject to undue mental restlessness than men ; and consequently, under circumstances in which the latter would have had recourse to stimulants to sustain themselves for a time in the struggle of life, many women fly to sedatives to allay the undue mental worry produced by the excitement of fashionable life. Formerly opium or some of its preparations was the drug that was had recourse to ; but its injurious effects soon became known, and the advent of a new sedative was hailed with pleasure. Chloral—or hydrate of chloral, as it is also called—is a most powerful remedy in allaying restlessness and producing sleep after the feverish excitement of over-work or pleasure. Originally prescribed only by’the physician—and then with extreme caution, as many deaths have occurred from its employment—its use, or rather its abuse, has gradually extended into private families, and numerous persons now habitually take syrup of chloral without any medical directions whatever. This is done under the idea that chloral is positively safe, whereas no notion can be more fallacious. Immediate death has not unfroquently resulted from the administration of a very moderate dose in private hands. The effect of its daily use is still more deplorable. Our medical contemporary, the Lancet, has lately done good service ini calling the attention of its professional readers to the largely increasing private employment of this pernicious - drug. It is true that chloral allays mental irritability, but at a fearful cost. By its habitual employment the will is weakened, the senses no longer remain under due control, the mental irritability of the patient becomes greater, all depressing influences are more severely felt, the sufferer becomes still more highly nervousand hysterical; and numerous are the cases on record in which delirium, imbecility, and paralysis more or less complete have resulted from an indulgence in this drug. As is the case with opium-eaters, the patients become accustomed to the medicine, and require constantly increasing doses. The craving for these becomes intolerable, the sufferers moaning piteously for their favorite remedy, sloop having become almost impossible except under its influence. If its use is persevered in after this stage fatal disease of the brain ensues, and the speedy end is drivelling idiotcy. It is true that these extreme cases are rare, as access to the medicine is usually prohibited before this deplorable stage is reached; but the evil in a lesser degree is very frequent. Wo would, therefore, in the strongest and most earnest manner caution those of our readers who have recourse to this potent drug never to do so except under medical advice, and to make the firmest stand against the temptation to allow its occasional employment to become habitual ; for if this is done the evil effects will creep on insidiously, and show themselves

in full force at no distant period. "We know the temptation to have recourse to a remedy that almost produces sleep at will is very great ; but this relief, great as it is, mustbe bought too dearly if present sleep and oblivion of the past are to be purchased at the cost of imbecility in the future. In all such cases as these to which we have been alluding, viz., the over cares of business or undue excitement of pleasure, the common sense rules of sanitary science must be followed : relaxation from work on the one hand, avoidance of excitement on the other, especially if accompanied by change of scene and new surroundings, will soon produce their salutary effects.