Clinical Evaluation of the Effect of Mephenesin on Anxiety

Abstract

The drug which is now known officially as Mephenesin (“Myanesin,” “Tolserol”) was introduced by Berger and Bradley (1946), who showed that it antagonizes strychnine convulsions, counteracts pre-narcotic excitement, and increases the duration of barbiturate anaesthesia. Small doses depress the reflex excitability of the spinal cord, and larger doses have an ascending depressant action on the central nervous system. When Berger (1947) found that doses with little effect on voluntary power restored deranged reciprocal innervation to normal, he suggested that mephenesin might be useful in spastic and hypertonic conditions.