Ethchlorvynol 151unusual accident the drug squirted into someone’s eyes and seriously injured
the corneas. One capsule format of an ethchlorvynol preparation called Pla-
cidyl includes FD&C Yellow No. 5 (tartrazine), which can cause asthma at-
tacks in some people.
Abuse factors.A case report indicates that tolerance may develop, but the
indication was complicated by influence from the patient’s thyroid disease.
Another case report tells of the opposite effect, with a person becoming so
sensitive to the drug that a trivial dose put him into a coma for a week. Experts
generally feel, however, that tolerance is a more typical development. Taking
the drug long enough to produce dependence can also produce slurred
speech, amnesia, discoordination, tremors, eyesight difficulty, and facial
numbness. The drug has a withdrawal syndrome that may not start until days
after dosage suddenly stops. Withdrawal may include the dependence symp-
toms just noted, plus excitability, convulsions, delirium, hallucinations, ner-
vousness, and loss of normal emotional reactions. Delirium tremens can occur.
Standard treatment involves temporary reinstatement of the drug followed by
tapering off doses, butphenobarbitalhas enough cross-tolerance to substitute
for this purpose. Typically such detoxification is delicate enough to require
hospitalization. In 1981 U.S. Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist was
reported to be so dependent upon medically prescribed ethchlorvynol that his
mind was clouded while undergoing withdrawal in a hospital. A case report
tells of someone who had months of hallucinations requiring weeks of hos-
pitalization while trying to cope with ethchlorvynol withdrawal complicated
by alcohol use. Alcohol abusers may find ethchlorvynol attractive. Medical
authorities have noted close similarities between symptoms of dependence
and withdrawal evoked by alcohol and ethchlorvynol.
Drug interactions.Individuals are not supposed to use ethchlorvynol along
with other depressants (including alcohol and barbiturates) or with mono-
amine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs, included in some antidepressants and other
medication). Delirium has occurred in persons who take ethchlorvynol along
with the tricyclic antidepressant amitriptyline hydrochloride, and caution is
advised about taking other tricyclic antidepressants along with ethchlorvynol.
Ethchlorvynol may interact with medications given to prevent blood clots. In
animals injected with THC, the main active component ofmarijuana, ethchlor-
vynol becomes more potent than usual.
Cancer.Rat experiments using many times the recommended human dose
of ethchlorvynol have yielded no evidence that the substance causes cancer.
In contrast, mice experiments indicate (but have not confirmed) a cancer-
causing potential. In the body the drug converts into other chemicals; results
from laboratory testing have yielded mixed results concerning their cancer-
causing potential.
Pregnancy.The drug is associated with fetal and newborn death in rat ex-
periments. In one experiment using the drug on pregnant rats, offspring
appeared normal but behaved abnormally and showed body chemistry ab-
errations. Effects on human pregnancy are uncertain. The substance passes
into a human fetus, and in dogs the fetal blood level reaches the same strength
as the maternal level. A baby born to a woman using the drug showed with-