Medicine: Over the Counter

The U.S. public, forever hopeful of finding a cure for the common cold, was eagerly buying newfangled pills last week. The drugs, heretofore available only on a doctor’s prescription, were selling over drug counters as fast and freely as bubble gum.

The drugs were anti-histaminics, developed in the last few years for relief of allergies (notably hay fever and asthma). Because they set off such side effects as drowsiness and dizziness in some patients, the Food & Drug Administration had kept them on the prescription list. Doctors, noting that many cold symptoms seem to be allergic in nature, have tried the anti-histaminics on cold sufferers, but the varied results left them far from enthusiastic.

All In Favor? Drug manufacturers, catering to the hopeful eagerness of snifflers, have been trying to find an anti-histaminic which would not cause side effects. The Nepera Chemical Co. of Yonkers, N.Y. came close with neohetramine. Several doctors reported it less toxic, and toxic to fewer people, than other drugs in the same family. In September the Food & Drug Administration, satisfied that the average customer would not be upset by the recommended dosage, authorized its sale over the counter.

Last week, under the trade name of Anahist, neohetramine was being advertised and sold as a preventive and cure for the common cold. Other drug companies were scrambling for a piece of this obviously rich market. An affiliate of the Schering Corp. was pushing another anti-histaminic under the name Inhiston, and more trade-named cold pills were due any day.

Neohetramine did show encouraging results last winter when it was elaborately tested, under ideal testing conditions, in Sing Sing prison, in a convent and in a girls’ seminary. Of 200 patients who got the recommended dosage, 182 had no colds all winter, 13 mild colds were nipped in the bud, and only four bad colds developed. Among the 300 untreated controls, only 59 were cold-free and 179 had bad ones.

Maybe Not. Despite all the impressive tests, some doctors were still dubious. The neohetramine tests were perhaps too perfect: most men & women do not get as much rest and will not dose themselves as carefully and regularly as the selected patients. Some doctors pointed to the danger of overdosing; e.g., a man who tries to cure a cold double-quick by doubling the recommended dose may get drowsy and fall asleep while driving.

The still unsettled point is the relationship between colds and allergies, though doctors admit that a layman doesn’t much care what ails him, so long as he is promptly cured. Dr. William J. Kerr of the University of California’s Medical School, a top authority on the subject, believes that only 25% of cold symptoms are due to allergy. Arguing from this thesis, he takes a dim view of anti-histaminics as cold cures. Said he: “To get one shot out of four wouldn’t be very good hunting—and it’s lousy medicine.”