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Ephedrine Psychosis Rediscovered

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Andrew M. Whitehouse  and
Janice M. Duncan
Andrew M. Whitehouse*
Affiliation:
Addenbrooke's Hospital, Formerly Registrar, Royal Edinburgh Hospital
Janice M. Duncan
Affiliation:
Royal Edinburgh Hospital and the State Hospital, Carstairs. Formerly Senior Registrar, Royal Edinburgh Hospital
*
∗Department of Psychiatry, Addenbrooke's Hospital, Hills Road, Cambridge CB2 2QQ
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Extract

The use of ephedrine for medicinal purposes dates back over 5000 years, when native Chinese physicians Ma Huang in the late 1800s, but was considered too toxic for clinical use; it was rediscovered by Chen & Schmidt (1930), who demonstrated its sympatho mimetic action and introduced it into Western medicine, where it was found to be a big improvement on adrenaline in the treatment of asthma. That the structure of ephedrine is very similar to that of amphetamine is not a coincidence, since Alles (1933) synthesised the latter as a synthetic substitute for ephedrine.

Type
Brief Reports
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 150 , Issue 2 , February 1987 , pp. 258 - 261
Copyright
Copyright © 1987 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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