THE EFFECT OF BENZEDRINE SULFATE (BETA-PHENYLISOPROPYLAMINE) ON METABOLISM AND THE CARDIOVASCULAR SYSTEM IN MAN

¹ From the Department of Physiology, University of Wisconsin Medical School, Madison

Benzedrine sulfate, 30 mgm. orally, increased the normal metabolic rate an average of 15.4 per cent within the first 2 hours. The rate did not return to normal, as compared with control experiments, for over 9 hours but did return to normal within 24 hours following administration of the drug. This effect would seem then to be a factor, along with the anorexia so frequently observed, in producing the loss of body weight following use of benzedrine, especially in obese individuals as reported by Ulrich (11), and Lesses and Myerson (12).

The per minute volume of inspired air was not significantly altered due to the compensatory increase in tidal volume in the instances where the respiratory rate was reduced.

The increase in buccal temperature probably reflects, to an extent, the rise in metabolic rate.

The maxima of the blood pressure effects were reached in 1 hours following which there was a slow decline in the pressures, reaching the original levels within 24 hours. Pulse rate was only slightly slowed during the maximal pressor effect and tended to rise as blood pressure dropped. Electrocardiograms before and at the peak of the drug effect showed only the slight alteration in rate.