Polypharmacy — Multiple-Ingredient and Shotgun Prescriptions

Abstract

CINCE ancient times the multiple-ingredient medic^ inal preparation has been part of the armamentarium of the physician as well as presenting a problem to him. The ancients seldom employed a single drug in the treatment of disease. The few really active preparations were often masked by numerous inactive and often foul-smelling or foultasting substances. Frequently, these inactive materials were added because of superstition, or to disguise the true nature of the active compound.Perhaps the outstanding example and the acme of polypharmacy was the compound mithridatium or theriac, the latter term identifying it as effective against the bites of poisonous . . .