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" Laborit substituted the new antihistamine, Thorazine, for promethazine. He also went so far as to recommend that Thorazine be included in soldiers’ battlefield kits, as a kind of first aid that could be self-administered in case of injury, to help manage stress responses and the flood of histamines into the body. Adhering to this recommendation, the U.S. military did include Thorazine in the medical kits of its soldiers during the Korean War. So marked was the apathy caused by Thorazine that the soldiers who took it lay languidly on the battlefield, indifferent to their wounds and unworried about their situation, in some cases forgoing opportunities for rescue, to the point where some may have died as a consequence. Thorazine as a battlefield staple was quickly discontinued. "

Lauren Slater , Blue Dreams: The Science and the Story of the Drugs that Changed Our Minds


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Lauren Slater quote : Laborit substituted the new antihistamine, Thorazine, for promethazine. He also went so far as to recommend that Thorazine be included in soldiers’ battlefield kits, as a kind of first aid that could be self-administered in case of injury, to help manage stress responses and the flood of histamines into the body. Adhering to this recommendation, the U.S. military did include Thorazine in the medical kits of its soldiers during the Korean War. So marked was the apathy caused by Thorazine that the soldiers who took it lay languidly on the battlefield, indifferent to their wounds and unworried about their situation, in some cases forgoing opportunities for rescue, to the point where some may have died as a consequence. Thorazine as a battlefield staple was quickly discontinued.