Prescription drug history Antibiotics first arrived on the medical scene in 1932 thanks to
Gerhard Domagk; and were coined the "wonder drugs". The introduction of the
sulfa drugs led to the mortality rate from
pneumonia in the U.S. to drop from 0.2% each year to 0.05% (, as much) by 1939. Antibiotics inhibit the growth or the metabolic activities of bacteria and other microorganisms by a chemical substance of microbial origin.
Penicillin, introduced a few years later, provided a broader spectrum of activity compared to sulfa drugs and reduced side effects.
Streptomycin, found in 1942, proved to be the first drug effective against the cause of
tuberculosis and also came to be the best known of a long series of important antibiotics. A second generation of antibiotics was introduced in the 1940s:
aureomycin and
chloramphenicol. Aureomycin was the best known of the second generation.
Lithium was discovered in the 19th century for nervous disorders and its possible mood-stabilizing or prophylactic effect; it was cheap and easily produced. As lithium fell out of favor in France,
valpromide came into play. This antibiotic was the origin of the drug that eventually created the mood stabilizer category. Valpromide had distinct psychotrophic effects that were of benefit in both the treatment of acute manic states and in the maintenance treatment of manic depression illness.
Psychotropics can either be
sedative or
stimulant; sedatives aim at damping down the extremes of behavior. Stimulants aim at restoring normality by increasing tone. Soon arose the notion of a tranquilizer which was quite different from any sedative or stimulant. The term tranquilizer took over the notions of sedatives and became the dominant term in the West through the 1980s. In Japan, during this time, the term tranquilizer produced the notion of a psyche-stabilizer and the term mood stabilizer vanished.
Premarin (conjugated estrogens, introduced in 1942) and
Prempro (a combination estrogen-progestin pill, introduced in 1995) dominated
hormone replacement therapy (HRT) regimens during the 1990s. Though not designed to cure any disease, HRT is prescribed to improve quality of life and as a preventative measure, such as treating post-menopausal symptoms. In the 1960s and early 1970s, more physicians began to prescribe estrogen for their female patients. Between 1991 and 1999, Premarin was listed as the most popular prescription and best-selling drug in America. It and other
medical papyri describe
Ancient Egyptian medical practices, such as using
honey to treat infections and the legs of bee-eaters to treat neck pains. Ancient
Babylonian medicine demonstrated the use of medication in the first half of the
2nd millennium BC.
Medicinal creams and
pills were employed as treatments. On the Indian subcontinent, the
Atharvaveda, a sacred text of
Hinduism whose core dates from the second millennium BC, although the hymns recorded in it are believed to be older, is the first Indic text dealing with medicine. It describes plant-based drugs to counter diseases. The earliest foundations of
ayurveda were built on a synthesis of selected ancient herbal practices, together with a massive addition of theoretical conceptualizations, new
nosologies and new therapies dating from about 400 BC onwards. The student of Āyurveda was expected to know ten arts that were indispensable in the preparation and application of his medicines: distillation, operative skills, cooking, horticulture, metallurgy, sugar manufacture, pharmacy, analysis and separation of minerals, compounding of metals, and preparation of
alkalis. The
Hippocratic Oath for physicians, attributed to fifth century BC Greece, refers to the existence of "deadly drugs", and
ancient Greek physicians imported drugs from Egypt and elsewhere. The
pharmacopoeia , written between 50 and 70 CE by the Greek physician
Pedanius Dioscorides, was widely read for more than 1,500 years.
Medieval pharmacology Al-Kindi's ninth century AD book,
De Gradibus and
Ibn Sina (Avicenna)'s
The Canon of Medicine, covers a range of drugs known to the practice of
medicine in the medieval Islamic world.
Medieval medicine of Western Europe saw advances in surgery compared to previously, but few truly effective drugs existed, beyond
opium (found in such extremely popular drugs as the "Great Rest" of the
Antidotarium Nicolai at the time) and
quinine. Folklore cures and potentially poisonous metal-based compounds were popular treatments.
Theodoric Borgognoni, (1205–1296), one of the most significant surgeons of the medieval period, responsible for introducing and promoting important surgical advances including basic
antiseptic practice and the use of
anaesthetics.
Garcia de Orta described some herbal treatments that were used.
Modern pharmacology For most of the 19th century, drugs were not highly effective, leading
Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. to famously comment in 1842 that "if all medicines in the world were thrown into the sea, it would be all the better for mankind and all the worse for the fishes". In the 1950s, other drugs emerged including
corticosteroids for
inflammation,
rauvolfia alkaloids as tranquilizers and antihypertensives,
antihistamines for nasal allergies,
xanthines for asthma, and typical
antipsychotics for psychosis. In the 1950s, new psychiatric drugs, notably the antipsychotic
chlorpromazine, were designed in laboratories and slowly came into preferred use. Although often accepted as an advance in some ways, there was some opposition, due to serious adverse effects such as
tardive dyskinesia. Patients often opposed psychiatry and refused or stopped taking the drugs when not subject to psychiatric control. Governments have been heavily involved in the regulation of drug development and drug sales. In the U.S., the
Elixir Sulfanilamide disaster led to the establishment of the
Food and Drug Administration, and the 1938 Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act required manufacturers to file new drugs with the FDA. The 1951 Humphrey-Durham Amendment required certain drugs to be sold by prescription. In 1962, a subsequent amendment required new drugs to be tested for efficacy and safety in
clinical trials. Until the 1970s, drug prices were not a major concern for doctors and patients. As more drugs became prescribed for chronic illnesses, however, costs became burdensome, and by the 1970s nearly every U.S. state required or encouraged the substitution of
generic drugs for higher-priced brand names. This also led to the 2006 U.S. law,
Medicare Part D, which offers Medicare coverage for drugs. As of 2008, the United States is the leader in
medical research, including pharmaceutical development. U.S. drug prices are among the highest in the world, and drug innovation is correspondingly high. In 2000, U.S.-based firms developed 29 of the 75 top-selling drugs; firms from the second-largest market, Japan, developed eight, and the United Kingdom contributed 10. France, which imposes price controls, developed three. Throughout the 1990s, outcomes were similar. ==Controversies==