Phenmetrazine
Pronunciation:fen-MET-rah-zeen
Chemical Abstracts Service Registry Number:134-49-6
Formal Names:Filon, Preludin
Informal Names:Sweeties
Type:Stimulant (anorectic class).Seepage 15
Federal Schedule Listing:Schedule II (DEA no. 1631)
USA Availability:Prescription
Uses.Immediately upon announcement of the drug’s discovery in 1954 it
was utilized in Germany as an appetite suppressant. A couple years later the
same medical use began in the United States with expansive claims about
patients obtaining substantial weight loss without having to follow a regimen
of dieting, claims that became more modest as experience with the drug
spread. One experiment testing the drug’s influence on appetite yielded a
result relevant to drug experiments in general: The substance worked better
when people knew its intended effect. If people knew they were supposed to
feel less hungry, they noticed less desire for food and then ate less. Early
reports praised phenmetrazine for producing more appetite loss than am-
phetamine and with fewer unwanted effects. Since then phenmetrazine has
fallen into disfavor due to concern about addictive potential even though the
drug is described as resemblingcaffeinemore than amphetamine.
In dogs phenmetrazine has only one sixth to one tenth the strength of am-
phetamine. One type of canine experiment showeddextroamphetamineto be
250 times stronger than phenmetrazine. In dogs a much higher dose of phen-
metrazine is needed for the same weight loss produced bybenzphetamine,
and an experiment with 75 humans had results consistent with that tendency,
finding phenmetrazine to be less effective than benzphetamine in promoting
weight loss. In contrast, another human weight reduction experiment with 81
persons was unable to demonstrate such a difference. That study did show,
however, that users obtain fewer amphetamine effects from phenmetrazine
than from dextroamphetamine.
Phenmetrazine has worked as an antidepressant, and for some overweight
persons that effect may enhance the drug’s appeal (overeating can be a re-
sponse to depression). The substance shows effectiveness against motion sick-
ness and against symptoms of diabetes insipidus. As a possible cure for