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Miltown advertisement, 1967. JAMA: the Journal of the American Medical Association, Vol. 202, No. 12, pp. 58-60. Syndromes of the 1960s. The computer-age compulsion. Predictions that man will soon be replaced by computers fail to reckon with his remarkable capacity to adopt and adapt. But in the process of competing with the machine, it seems man is in danger of becoming one. He has, for example, demonstrated a compulsion to work continuously under any and all adverse conditions (until sidelined by mechanical breakdown). He has accepted the need to conform and, like the computer, to reject independent thinking in favor of programmed performance. And he has indicated that he can compete with any machine in time-motion studies because all his time and motion is devoted to his job. Exaggeration? Not to the physician who is increasingly exposed to the byproducts of the new industrial revolution -- peptic ulcer, mid-forty infarction and anxiety reaction -- and to the victims of husband and father absenteeism: lonely, anxious, frustrated wives, and mother-smothered "problem" children. Is there a role for 'Miltown' here or is it beyond medical solution? The problem is a sociological one, of course, but as in so many "social" problems, it is the physician who is called upon to pick up the pieces when things go awry for the individual. So when job demands engender anxiety and tension -- in fact, whenever human emotions become folded, spindled and mutilated -- 'Miltown' can frequently be of help. It has been for more than a dozen years now. Indications: Effective in relief of anxiety and tension states; adjunctively when anxiety may be a causative or disturbing factor. Fosters normal sleep through anti-anxiety and muscle-relaxant properties. Contraindications: Previous allergic or idiosyncratic reactions to meprobamate. (Brief summary of prescribing information is continued on next page.) Wallace Pharmaceuticals / Cranbury, N.J. when reassurance is not enough Miltown® (Meprobamate) |