Worboys, Michael (Author)
Toon, Elizabeth A. (Author)
History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences
Volume: 40
Issue: 2
Pages: 27
In this article we explore the different trajectories of this one drug,phenylbutazone, across two species, humans and horses in the period 1950–2000. Theessay begins by following the introduction of the drug into human medicine in theearly 1950s. It promised to be a less costly alternative to cortisone, one of the“wonder drugs” of the era, in the treatment of rheumatic conditions. Both drugsappeared to offer symptomatic relief rather than a cure, and did so with the risk ofside effects, which with phenylbutazone were potentially so severe that it waseventually banned from human use, for all but a few diseases, in the early 1980s.Phenylbutazone had been used with other animals for many years without the sameissues, but in the 1980s its uses in veterinary medicine, especially in horses, cameunder increased scrutiny, but for quite different reasons. The focus was primarilythe equity, economics, and ethics of competition in equine sports, with differencesin cross-species biology and medicine playing a secondary role. The story ofphenylbutazone, a single drug, shows how the different biologies and social roles ofits human/animal subjects resulted in very different and changing uses. While thedrug had a seemingly common impact on pain and inflammation, there wereinter-species differences in the drug’s metabolism, the conditions treated, dosages,and, crucially, in intended clinical outcomes and perceptions of its benefits andrisks.
...MoreSimilar Citations
Article
Laÿna Droz;
Romaric Jannel;
Christoph D. D. Rupprecht;
(2022)
Living through multispecies societies: Approaching the microbiome with Imanishi Kinji
(/isis/citation/CBB332351562/)
Article
Michael Worboys;
Elizabeth Toon;
(2019)
Special Issue—Before Translational Medicine: Laboratory Clinic Relations Lost in Translation? Cortisone and the Treatment of Rheumatoid Arthritis in Britain, 1950–1960
(/isis/citation/CBB677726282/)
Article
Anna Wienhues;
(2022)
Looking through the microscope: Microbes as a challenge for theorising biocentrism within environmental ethics
(/isis/citation/CBB384460195/)
Book
Donna J. Haraway;
(2016)
Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene
(/isis/citation/CBB866601100/)
Article
Childers, Leisl Carr;
(2013)
Leisl Carr Childers on The Gus Bundy Photographs and The Wild Horse Controversy
(/isis/citation/CBB001320301/)
Article
Benoît Majerus;
(2019)
A Chemical Revolution as Seen from below: The ‘Discovery’ of Neuroleptics in 1950s Paris
(/isis/citation/CBB218045654/)
Article
Aschoff, Jürgen C.;
(2013)
A Physician's View on Legal Aspects of the Contemporary Medical Use of Mercury in Germany
(/isis/citation/CBB001510481/)
Book
Heydon, Susan;
Duffull, Stephen B.;
(2013)
Pharmacy at Otago: The First 50 Years: The School, the Profession and the People
(/isis/citation/CBB001421862/)
Article
Ashcroft, Richard E.;
Hedgecoe, Adam M.;
(2006)
Genetic Databases and Pharmacogenetics: Introduction
(/isis/citation/CBB000770737/)
Article
Pieters, Toine;
Majerus, Benoît;
(2011)
The Introduction of Chlorpromazine in Belgium and the Netherlands (1951--1968); Tango between Old and New Treatment Features
(/isis/citation/CBB001221534/)
Book
Andrew Bickford;
(2021)
Chemical Heroes: Pharmacological Supersoldiers in the US Military
(/isis/citation/CBB049126185/)
Book
Djerassi, Carl;
(2001)
This Man's Pill: Reflections on the 50th Birthday of the Pill
(/isis/citation/CBB000101017/)
Article
Rae, Ian D.;
(2009)
The Roche Research Institute of Marine Pharmacology, 1974--1981: Searching for Drug Leads from Australian Marine Organisms
(/isis/citation/CBB000954308/)
Thesis
Pacino, Nicole Lohman;
(2013)
Prescription for a Nation: Public Health in Post-Revolutionary Bolivia, 1952--1964
(/isis/citation/CBB001567448/)
Article
Horwitz, Allan V.;
(2011)
Naming the Problem That Has No Name: Creating Targets for Standardized Drugs
(/isis/citation/CBB001221532/)
Article
Gerke, Barbara;
(2013)
The Social Life of Tsotel: Processing Mercury in Contemporary Tibetan Medicine
(/isis/citation/CBB001510478/)
Article
Bittencourt, Silvia Cardoso;
Caponi, Sandra;
Maluf, Sonia;
(2013)
Farmacologia no século XX: a ciência dos medicamentos a partir da análise do livro de Goodman e Gilman
(/isis/citation/CBB001420651/)
Book
Maris, Ronald W.;
(2015)
Pillaged: Psychiatric Medications and Suicide Risk
(/isis/citation/CBB001552815/)
Article
José Eduardo Sant’Anna Porto;
(2019)
Chlorpromazine: a remedy of its time
(/isis/citation/CBB109852180/)
Article
Daemmrich, A.;
(2007)
Pharmaceutical Regulation in the United States and Europe
(/isis/citation/CBB001221028/)
Endeavour: Review of the Progress of Science
Asian Medicine: Tradition and Modernity
Social History of Medicine
History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences
Historical Records of Australian Science
Be the first to comment!