https://padlet.com/sophiatheodorous/7kc040cg4m4dfzf8 By: Sophia Theodorous time: 1801-1900 en-us 2022-04-02 20:24:05 UTC 2026-02-07 23:51:06 UTC hello@padlet.com sophiatheodorous https://padlet.com/sophiatheodorous/7kc040cg4m4dfzf8/wish/2129838270 Morphine was used in the American Civil War which led many veterans to become addicted¹. In 1874, chemists tried to find a less addictive form of morphine and instead created heroin and marketed as a treatment for tuberculosis as well as a remedy for morphine addiction¹. The only problem was the heroin had twice the potency of morphine making it much more dangerous to be on the streets especially since it was still a very addictive substance¹. It was also argued that veterans as well as doctors were prone to overuse the drug alike². The only way to slow this cycle of addiction was to educate doctors and strong advise against prescribing them².
1.https://www.capeandislandsems.org/the-truth-about-heroin/
2.https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/inside-story-americas-19th-century-opiate-addiction-180967673/]]> 2022-04-05 02:31:48 UTC https://padlet.com/sophiatheodorous/7kc040cg4m4dfzf8/wish/2129838270 sophiatheodorous https://padlet.com/sophiatheodorous/7kc040cg4m4dfzf8/wish/2129839768 The discovery of codeine in the 1830s came as the need for a pain suppressant grew. Morphine was available but highly addictive. Codeine was a less powerful drug that is found in opium but can be man-made¹. It was first isolated in 1830 in France by Jean-Pierre Robiquet, to replace raw opium for medical purposes¹. It is used mainly now as a cough remedy¹. They succeeded in finding a replacement for the morphine for other medical uses but the addictive qualities of an opiate are very hard to erase¹. Especially for those who were already addicted as well as those who were in insufferable pain. They would do anything to get rid of the pain which led them to opiates¹.
1. https://www.drugfreeworld.org/drugfacts/painkillers/a-short-history.html
2. https://www.si.edu/stories/six-cold-and-flu-medicines-youre-not-taking-today]]> 2022-04-05 02:32:57 UTC https://padlet.com/sophiatheodorous/7kc040cg4m4dfzf8/wish/2129839768 sophiatheodorous https://padlet.com/sophiatheodorous/7kc040cg4m4dfzf8/wish/2129845120 The U.S. Civil War sparked a massive epidemic of opiod use and addiction across the country¹. Not only were these drugs so readily available during the war but after, so many veterans could not live without it¹. With all of the horrific diseases that terrified men in combat and the wounds that haunted the men at night, life was far from healthy for these men¹. Additionally, many army doctors who were pushed into service had little to not training at all so they would rely on the fundamental options of opiated for mitigating pain and suffering¹. Surgeons gave out opiates willingly to soldiers during and after the war because of their suffering¹. Not only were these drugs addictive but they were and are very dangerous drugs that leas to many overdose death in the 1860s¹. Addicted veterans never received the help they needed because of the stigma of addiction¹. Unfortunately, this was the reality of most veterans who were prescribed a drug that was helping them but also hurting them entirely¹.

1.https://library.medicine.yale.edu/blog/great-risk-opium-eating-how-civil-war-era-doctors-reacted-prescription-opioid-addiction]]> 2022-04-05 02:37:16 UTC https://padlet.com/sophiatheodorous/7kc040cg4m4dfzf8/wish/2129845120 sophiatheodorous https://padlet.com/sophiatheodorous/7kc040cg4m4dfzf8/wish/2129852831 Pierre-Jean Robiquet is my docent because he was a French pharmacist who isolated codeine. He had a very troublesome childhood which subsequently influence his learning and career paths significantly¹. Robiquet landed jobs in the pharmacy for the Navy and then the Army of the West until he later went on to finish his education and went to a laboratory that Fourcroy owned with Louis Nicolas Vauquelin where they fabricated chemical products¹. He went into the military for a while and then fully dedicated his career to buy a pharmacy. This then led to the hiring of a young pharmacist J.-B Berthemot who would be in charge of the operations of extracting opium. This is what later would lead to the isolation fo codeine¹. Robiquet published around 60+ papers in the areas of mineral chemistry, mineral and vegetable pigments, and extractive and analytical chemistry¹. Because of his techniques and work in the pharmaceuticals production and techniques for isolating them he would be a great candidate to further investigate new types of pain killers and sedatives.



1. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0187893X13725072 ]]> 2022-04-05 02:43:53 UTC https://padlet.com/sophiatheodorous/7kc040cg4m4dfzf8/wish/2129852831 sophiatheodorous https://padlet.com/sophiatheodorous/7kc040cg4m4dfzf8/wish/2133270527
Surgery was around prior to the discoveries of efficient pain killers and sedatives. However, surgeries still occurred but with a lot of emotional and physical stress to the patients. The time between told that a patient needs to endure and surgery and the time that they were to have the surgery was a time that anxiety could soar¹. The surgeons job was to make this time as short as possible because the distress would only get worse once inside the "theatre"(operating room)¹. It is these horror of accounts of patients lying in excruciating pain from the palpation of these surgical instruments that a need to reduce pain and suffering nearly became a necessity².

1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK481552/ 
2. https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200624-how-agonising-surgery-paved-the-way-for-anaesthetics]]> 2022-04-06 19:06:58 UTC https://padlet.com/sophiatheodorous/7kc040cg4m4dfzf8/wish/2133270527 sophiatheodorous https://padlet.com/sophiatheodorous/7kc040cg4m4dfzf8/wish/2133271203 William Morton the first successful public showing of the use of ether anesthesia during a surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital¹. William Morton had watched his former dental partner unsuccessfully demonstrate the anodyne properties of nitrous oxide gas¹. This gave was for Morton to find a more reliable pain killing chemical¹.Morton first used the anesthesia in a tooth extraction procedure successfully in 1846¹. Then in October 1846, he successfully administered ether to a patient undergoing a tumor operation¹.

1. https://www.britannica.com/biography/William-Thomas-Green-Morton]]> 2022-04-06 19:07:26 UTC https://padlet.com/sophiatheodorous/7kc040cg4m4dfzf8/wish/2133271203 sophiatheodorous https://padlet.com/sophiatheodorous/7kc040cg4m4dfzf8/wish/2133306472 Science advances sometimes way beyond what we can predict and opioids have sparked again with overdoes roughly tripling since 1999¹. The problem with such a powerful drug that has these addictive qualities we now question whether the suffering of a patient outweighs the proclaimed possible future they may endure¹. With such painful surgeries we know that the patents will have excruciating pain however, the pain of withdrawals is held in comparison. These very commonly prescribed drugs are heavily monitored but on the streets these drugs can be made and their effects are proven to eliminate the pain. Our bodies work towards eliminating the pain but addiction to this pain suppressant is beyond a cure, it is a death sentence for many¹. More than 80% of low-risk surgery patients are given opioids that are also the most commonly implicated  drugs in overdose deaths¹. If the drugs healthcare providers are prescribing are the ones killing other on the streets there is something that need to be fixed with its distribution and even being prescribed in general.


1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6119469/
2. https://www.cdc.gov/opioids/basics/epidemic.html ]]> 2022-04-06 19:31:22 UTC https://padlet.com/sophiatheodorous/7kc040cg4m4dfzf8/wish/2133306472 sophiatheodorous https://padlet.com/sophiatheodorous/7kc040cg4m4dfzf8/wish/2133317816 James Young Simpson did not discover chloroform like many believe, instead he was introduced to chloroform and its effects by a man named David Waldie who understood its anesthetic properties¹.The true man to discover chloroform was Eugene Soubeiran in France in 1831 and also by Justis von Liebig the following year¹. David Waldie explained his experiments with regards to chloric ether, but one day in 1847, Simpson and his two assistants because unconscious while inhaling chloroform¹. They evidently proclaimed chloroform to be much stronger than ether and wrote a pamphlet describing how chloroform should be used in dental work, opening abscess and in obstetrics¹.  He also published a paper on the London Medical Gazetter, where he spoke about administering chloroform to 80 individuals¹.  In the years after there were many to object this anesthesia in obstetric practice for religious reason but that was eliminated when Queen Victoria receive anesthetic agent when she gave birth to her ninth child¹.
1.https://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025-6196(11)63340-5/fulltext]]> 2022-04-06 19:40:08 UTC https://padlet.com/sophiatheodorous/7kc040cg4m4dfzf8/wish/2133317816