A Hundred Years Ago: On the Therapeutic Value of Indian Hemp

Abstract

I have during the last few years been accustomed to prescribe Indian hemp in many conditions, and this drug seems to me to deserve a better repute than it has obtained. In one form of insanity, more common in women than in men, and brought on usually by mental worry, often owing to the illness of a near relative or by a moral shock, the drug acts almost as a specific. In this affection the patient is depressed and apprehensive, she imagines that animals are after her or that someone wants to injure her. There is great mental confusion and mental loss, the patient is unable to carry on any conversation, and sometimes is unable to dress herself, the condition being one of acute dementia. I have notes of several such cases that have been cured by Indian hemp within a fortnight. I usually give 10–minim doses of the tincture thrice daily, combined with iron and strychnine. I prescribe also complete rest and plenty of food. The Indian hemp is an essential factor in the treatment, for without it the rapid recovery does not ensue: it seems to remove the mental distress and the restlessness.

Indian hemp has proved very useful in my hands in the treatment of melancholia and mania. I have also found this drug of great value in the treatment of chorea when arsenic fails, as it frequently does. It may be combined with chloral with advantage in such cases. In migraine the drug is also of great value; a pill containing ¼ gr. of the extract with or without a ¼ gr. of phosphide of zinc will often immediately check an attack, and if the pill be given twice a day continuously the severity and frequency of the attacks are often much diminished. I have met with patients who have been incapacitated for work from the frequency of the attacks, and who have been enabled by the use of Indian hemp to resume their employment. This drug is also a valuable gastric sedative in cases of gastric ulcer and gastrodynia. It may be combined with nitrate of silver, and it increases the efficacy of the latter. Its value is well known to asylum physicians, but it does not appear to have obtained the confidence of the profession generally. Indian hemp is also a very valuable hypnotic.