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Walter J. Friedlander, MD

Arch Neurol. 2000;57:1782-1785.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

INTRODUCTION

We are now accustomed to seeing new effective medicines frequently becoming available and replacing older drugs. Antiepileptics are no exception. However, the rapidity with which this happens is a relatively new phenomenon. Although the rate at which newer drugs replace older ones has changed, the characteristics of this sequence have frequently remained the same. An examination of the rise and fall of bromides as antiepileptics demonstrates, in relatively slow-motion, what can occur when a useful drug is introduced for treatment of a disorder for which there had never been really effective medicines before.

The use of bromides has gone through 4 phases. First, there was some initial hesitancy in accepting this medicinal treatment. This probably can be ascribed to the reluctance of physicians to try something other than what was traditional. There then followed a time of almost euphoria; at last, it was believed, the effective . . . [Full Text of this Article]

PHASE 1: HESITANCY

PHASE 2: ENTHUSIASM

PHASE 3: DOUBTS

PHASE 4: DEMISE

From the University of Nebraska College of Medicine, Omaha.

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J Child Neurol 2007;22:414-418.
ABSTRACT