Doc Holliday & the December 2012 medical journal "Practical Pain Management"

[Paul Saeli]

The medical journal Practical Pain Management has an article titled "Doc Holiday's Pain Story" in their December 2012 issue. It's a well done piece on how Doc self medicated his tuberculosis using alcohol and opiates while living in Arizona.

The author Forest Tennant, MD minimized medical terminology without compromising the content . It's a worthwhile and entertaining read;

http://www.practicalpainmanagement.com/pain/doc-holliday-story-tube...

Paul

[Stan H]

I don't understand why the film industry and even our western novel writers ignore to historic fact of the existance of drug use in the old west. Opium dens were very common, plus even some of the more "respected" gentry used opiates.

 

I would think that anyone, Ol' doc included, would use whatever was available to ease the pain.

[Murray A. Gewirtz]

The article is very insightful, interesting, and rather sympathetic to Doc in his excruciating condition. Also, it quotes, verbatim, a paragraph by BBB, from his book on Doc Holliday, on the torment endured by late stage TB patients.

[Margaret-Anne Moore]

As I noted in a previous posting some time ago, it was not only the use and abuse of alcohol that injured the post-Civil War generation, but also the use and overuse of something that I believe was called Laudinum.  Even in our more modern warfare, there have been cases where severely wounded personnel became addicted because they were overdosed on whatever was being used to alleviate pain at the time.  some years ago, a columnist noted--in response to a correspondent who decried the Food and Drug Administration's  restrictions on drugs and flatly stated that there should be no restrictions at all--by noting that before the restrictions were put in place, many people became addicted because drugs were readily and easily available.  One must also remember that many early soft drinks were originally made with substances that are now banned or restricted.

[anthony martin]

  I found it interesting that Bugleweed or Horehound  was used by consumptives .I remember my great uncle who died from TB in his late 40's.He always had horehound candy on his person.Accounts relate that Doc always carried hard candies in his pocket and used to pass them out to children.Most likely they were horehound.

[Paul Saeli]

@Margaret-Anne

You mentioned- "it was not only the use and abuse of alcohol that injured the post-Civil War generation, but also the use and overuse of something that I believe was called Laudinum ."

This journal article did a good job of explaining what laudanum was. The author also outlined the general lack of analgesics in the marketplace and noted that aspirin would not be formulated until years after Doc's death.

 "The laudanum formulation used in the 1800s contained not only opium but also wine, and was flavored with cinnamon or saffron.¹⁷ It was primarily used in Doc’s time as a pain killer, sleep aid, and tranquilizer—just like modern-day prescription opioid preparations."

The article said this on aspirin, alcohol & opium;

"... be aware that Dr. John Fothergill, regarded by many to be the world’s most prominent physician in the late 1700s, recommended alcohol and opium for the management of TB. He wrote: “Fresh white poppy [opium] seeds, in the proportions of half an ounce to a pint of Bristol [alcohol], make an excellent emulsion. The cough will abate and gradually cease entirely.”¹⁸ In today’s world of high-powered pharmacology, it seems almost ludicrous to think of these two chemicals as a treatment. Be clearly advised, however, that Holliday didn’t have any choice. Aspirin wasn’t even invented until about 1895, some 8 years after Doc died."

Physicians lacked treatment options for TB during the 19th century. There were few, if any, pain killers available beyond opiates and alcohol. But what those did temporarily suppress the coughs of TB patients. 

The author, Dr. Tennant, also emphasizes that Doc extended his life span from a Georgia based physicians estimate of two years to 14 years after moving to Arizona. Outstanding!

[Paul Saeli]

@ Stan H.

"I would think that anyone, Ol' doc included, would use whatever was available to ease the pain."

I agree. If during your lifespan in the 19th century alcohol and opiates are all you haveavailable as painkillers then why not use them.

[Dave McGowan]

I quit working on a sequel to "Partners" because I need to do some research on some different areas, but one thing that it will have is an opium "den" operated by the Chinese (about 1/3 of the pop. of Barkerville in the late 1860s and into the 70s). Most of that study I have already done.

The last two I've written - Jake's Justice and Cattle Business - include the use of laudanum.