Medicine: Psychic Energizer

Medical researchers reported last week that they have found a sort of untran-quilizer—a drug that shows promise in treating mental patients suffering from depression. It is no new chemical, but iproniazid (trade name: Marsilid), first cousin of isoniazid and a veteran of the 1951 campaign against tuberculosis. When it was given to TB patients at New York City's Sea View Hospital, they became happy, ate ravenously, gained weight and started dancing in the wards (TIME, March 3, 1952). Iproniazid was soon retired from widespread use because it produced undesirable side effects, such as...