{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,7]],"date-time":"2026-10-07T07:18:32Z","timestamp":1791357512067,"version":"4.3.1"},"reference-count":31,"publisher":"SAGE Publications","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2019,5,30]],"date-time":"2019-05-30T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1559174400000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/page\/policies\/text-and-data-mining-license"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["journals.sagepub.com"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Hist Psychiatry"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2019,9]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>In the early 1930s, American neurologist and psychiatrist William Bleckwenn used sodium amytal to render catatonic patients responsive, so that he could engage in talk therapy. Bleckwenn found a new, \u2018off-label\u2019 use for this anaesthetic and anxiolytic medication in psychiatry and, in doing so, allowed for important discoveries in the diagnosis and treatment of catatonia. Pharmacological textbooks reveal a \u2018label\u2019, while the Index-Catalogue of the Library of the Surgeon-General\u2019s Office reveals explorations \u2018off label\u2019 of barbiturates. The \u2018off-label\u2019 use of barbiturates facilitated talk therapy, heralding an important shift in psychopharmacy. Drugs previously only used as chemical restraints became a form of treatment for specific psychiatric diseases. The current strictures against off-label prescribing are overprescriptive and close off innovative new uses.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1177\/0957154x19847605","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2019,5,30]],"date-time":"2019-05-30T06:45:07Z","timestamp":1559198707000},"page":"352-358","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/sage-journals-update-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":6,"title":["How amytal changed psychopharmacy: off-label uses of sodium amytal (1920\u201340)"],"prefix":"10.1177","volume":"30","author":[{"given":"Ariel","family":"Gershon","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Western University, Canada"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Edward","family":"Shorter","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"University of Toronto, Canada"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"179","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2019,5,30]]},"reference":[{"key":"bibr1-0957154X19847605","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/S0278-5846(01)00160-9"},{"issue":"1","key":"bibr2-0957154X19847605","first-page":"71","volume":"53","author":"Beck JM","year":"1998","journal-title":"Food and Drug Law Journal"},{"key":"bibr3-0957154X19847605","first-page":"745","volume-title":"Handbook of Clinical Neurology","volume":"123","author":"Berger JR","year":"2014"},{"key":"bibr4-0957154X19847605","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1001\/jama.1930.02720160028009"},{"key":"bibr5-0957154X19847605","volume-title":"Goodman & Gilman\u2019s The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics","author":"Brunton LL","year":"2018","edition":"13"},{"key":"bibr6-0957154X19847605","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1600-0447.1996.tb09815.x"},{"key":"bibr7-0957154X19847605","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1542\/peds.2013-4060"},{"issue":"2","key":"bibr8-0957154X19847605","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"107","DOI":"10.31887\/DCNS.2017.19.2\/macrocq","volume":"19","author":"Crocq M-A","year":"2017","journal-title":"Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience"},{"key":"bibr9-0957154X19847605","volume-title":"History of Medicine: A Scandalously Short Introduction","author":"Duffin J","year":"2010","edition":"2"},{"key":"bibr10-0957154X19847605","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1001\/archderm.1937.01480030071007"},{"key":"bibr11-0957154X19847605","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1111\/acps.12038"},{"key":"bibr12-0957154X19847605","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1097\/00004714-198312000-00002"},{"key":"bibr13-0957154X19847605","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.2298\/MPNS1502035G"},{"key":"bibr14-0957154X19847605","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1056\/NEJMp1210007"},{"key":"bibr15-0957154X19847605","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1001\/jama.1935.92760340001009a"},{"key":"bibr16-0957154X19847605","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.2165\/00003495-197612050-00002"},{"key":"bibr17-0957154X19847605","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1038\/npp.1993.69"},{"key":"bibr18-0957154X19847605","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1176\/ajp.88.6.1083"},{"issue":"4","key":"bibr19-0957154X19847605","first-page":"329","volume":"1","author":"L\u00f3pez-Mu\u00f1oz F","year":"2005","journal-title":"Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment"},{"key":"bibr20-0957154X19847605","first-page":"358","volume":"64","author":"Norbury FG","year":"1933","journal-title":"Illinois Medical Journal"},{"key":"bibr21-0957154X19847605","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1192\/bjp.bp.109.066894"},{"key":"#cr-split#-bibr22-0957154X19847605.1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Ripley HS, Wolf S (1947) Clinical notes: The intravenous use of sodium amytal in psychosomatic disorders. 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