Medical and veterinary (to stop seizures). Locock noted that bromide calmed sexual excitement and thought this was responsible for his success in treating seizures. In the latter half of the 19th century, potassium bromide was used for the calming of seizure and nervous disorders on an enormous scale, with the use by single hospitals being as much as several tons a year (the dose for a given person being a few grams per day). There was not a better epilepsy drug until
phenobarbital in 1912. The
British Army has historically been claimed to lace soldiers'
tea with bromide to quell sexual arousal and in the Victorian era prisoners in England were compulsorily dosed with the chemical. Bromide compounds, especially
sodium bromide, remained in over-the-counter sedatives and headache remedies (such as the original formulation of
Bromo-Seltzer) in the US until 1975, when bromides were outlawed in all over-the-counter medicines, due to chronic toxicity. Bromide's exceedingly long
biological half-life made it difficult to dose without side effects. Medical use of bromides for humans in the US was discontinued at this time, as many better and shorter-acting sedatives were known by then. Potassium bromide is still used in veterinary medicine to treat
epilepsy in dogs, either as first-line treatment or in addition to phenobarbital, when seizures are not adequately controlled with phenobarbital alone. Use of bromide in cats is limited because it carries a substantial risk of causing lung inflammation (pneumonitis) in them. Why bromides should cause such inflammation in cats, but not in dogs, is not clear. The use of bromide as a treatment drug for animals means that veterinary medical diagnostic laboratories are able as a matter of routine to measure serum levels of bromide on order of a veterinarian, whereas human medical diagnostic labs in the US do not measure bromide as a routine test. Potassium bromide is not approved by the US
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use in humans to control seizures. In Germany, it is still approved as an antiepileptic drug for humans, particularly children and adolescents. These indications include severe forms of generalized tonic-clonic seizures, early-childhood-related tonic–clonic seizures, and also severe myoclonic seizures during childhood. Adults who have reacted positively to the drug during childhood/adolescence may continue treatment. Potassium bromide tablets are sold under the brand name
Dibro-Be mono (Rx-only). The drug has almost complete bioavailability, but the bromide ion has a relatively long biological half-life of 12 days in the blood, Due to its high solubility and
hygroscopic nature it must be kept in a dry environment. The
refractive index is about 1.55 at 1.0 μm.
Photography In addition to manufacture of silver bromide, potassium bromide is used as a restrainer in
black and white developer formulas. It improves differentiation between exposed and unexposed crystals of silver halide, and thus reduces fog. == References ==