Medicine: New Shots for Old Ills

An estimated 8,000,000 U.S. citizens—mostly women—suffer recurrent attacks of one of mankind’s worst nonfatal miseries, the sharp, blinding pain of migraine (sick headache) which leaves many of its victims unable to eat, to work, to think clearly. Doctors, not sure what causes this malady, can sometimes curb it, but cannot cure it.

When such simple remedies as aspirin fail, the standard treatment has been shots of ergotamine tartrate (Gynergen). But Gynergen, derived from ergot, a drug used to stimulate uterine contractions in childbirth, is almost a disease in itself. It slows the pulse, raises blood pressure, occasionally causes gangrene, may cause vomiting, pains in the legs, uterine cramps and suppression of menses.

In the Proceedings of the Staff Meetings of the Mayo Clinic, Dr. Bayard T. Horton & coworkers point a way out of this miserable dilemma. Having tried it on 120 patients over three and a half years, they announced that a new derivative of ergot, dihydroergotamine, has all the virtues of Gynergen and almost none of its vices.