Primary Source: Opium Substitute
In my research this week I came across a newspaper article from December 1950. The article New Painkiller Praised by Army which was published in the New York Times talked about the new synthetic painkiller the army was using. The article stated that the army had developed a substitute for morphine and that it had become the main battlefield painkiller for the wounded. I found this article extremely helpful in my research of the history of pain management for several reasons. First it tells me that by 1950 opium is being used commonly to treat pain. Second it tells me that it was during the 1950s that scientist began to synthesis pain medication. The article is the first information I have found on when synthesized pain medication-which is the most common form of pain management today-came in to practice.
Good find! Let’s connect to the history – we have the post-war developments in synthesized drugs, and the recent war experience (which I assume is connected to analgesic advances?).
I’d like to see whether you can find a journal article that reassesses the understanding of opiates as used in earlier times? As with any other topic, the way historians deal with analgesia would have to follow some sort of historiographical path of argument. I wonder whether we see the issue differently in an age of fear about opiate dependence? Whether that focus is part of a historical cycle?