Freud y la cocaina...

In 1883, German physician Theodor Aschenbrandt administered cocaine to members of the Bavarian army. It was found that the drug enhanced their endurance on manoeurvres.

Aschenbrandt's study was published in a German medical journal. The report was read by a young Viennese neurologist, Sigmund Freud (1856-1939). Freud was to play a significant role in the development of the Western cocaine-industry. "I take very small doses of it regularly and against depression and against indigestion, and with the most brilliant success", he observed. Drug giants Merck and Parke Davies both paid Freud to endorse their rival brands. Freud wrote several enthusiastic papers on cocaine, notably (1884). He talks of "the most gorgeous excitement" animals display after receieving injection of a cocaine "offering". And in humans, cocaine induces...

"...exhilaration and lasting euphoria, which in no way differs from the normal euphoria of the healthy person...You perceive an increase of self-control and possess more vitality and capacity for work....In other words, you are simply normal, and it is soon hard to believe you are under the influence of any drug....Long intensive physical work is performed without any fatigue...This result is enjoyed without any of the unpleasant after-effects that follow exhilaration brought about by alcohol....Absolutely no craving for the further use of cocaine appears after the first, or even after repeated taking of the drug..."

Freud concluded by recommending seven conditions for which cocaine pharmacotherapy might prove valuable:

1. as a mental stimulant

2. as a possible treatment for digestive disorders

3. as an appetite stimulant in case of wasting diseases

4. as a treatment for morphine and alcohol addiction

5. as a treatment for asthma

6. as an aphrodisiac

7. as a local anaesthetic

It was Freud's fourth recommendation that caused the most controversy. Cocaine is no longer prescribed as an antidote to morphine addiction.

Taken in an oral solution as Freud had envisaged, cocaine was indeed less likely to be addictive than when administered by the intravenous route. The euphoria induced is delayed; and it may be less intense and even subtle. A lot of the cocaine is broken down in the liver before it reaches the brain. However, hypodermic needles were starting to become widely available in the 1880s. Morphine addicts soon discovered that subcutaneous injections of cocaine yielded a quick, potent and addictive high. Before long, many users became hooked on cocktails including both. Using cocaine to cure morphine addiction, Freud later ruefully admitted, was "like trying to cast out the Devil with Beelzebub."(Más)