Dark Remedy: The Impact of Thalidomide and Its Revival as a Vital Medicine

Dark Remedy is definitely not all it's cracked up to be. I agree that it's a disturbing and informative book chronicling the "life" of thalidomide but I have to admit that I found it pretty boring. Maybe I'm just too young to understand the tragedy that resulted from the use of thalidomide. The truth is that I had never even heard of thalidomide until I read this book. I guess I can't truly grasp the impact that this drug had on the world and that may have contributed to the confusion I experienced while reading Dark Remedy. The only parts of the book that I found interesting were the experiences of the children who were born with phocomelia. That is what I was looking for when I first decided to read this book. I guess I should have looked elsewhere.

Dark Remedy is a very informative book on Thalidomide. It is a HOSA (health occupations students of America) reading book, for high school students. I teach that in high school and thought it was a good book for our future healthcare students to read.

Dark Remedy by Brynner and Stephens is a rather scary tale of how one person, Dr. Frances Kelsey, may have just saved the people of the United States from a very trajic event in the 1960-61 era. Being a new FDA employee back then, she simply refused to permit its (ie, thalidomide) acceptance for the US (FDA approval) market, and by doing so, prevented one of the worst nightmares that could have occurred in American medical history. Many other countries had already approved the drug for use, and by doing so, suffered consequences most of us are well aware of to this date. For that one fact alone, she certainly deserved the medal given by President Kennedy and many thanks from every American. The book also shows how bullish a pharmaceutical company can be. In 1958, it boldly went through the William Merrill company, so to set up the manufacturing process, as the drug called "Kevadon" back then. We are all very fortunate, that she (Kelsay) had the will and inner guidance not to cave in to all of the pressures of lobbyists of other countries and just say "no." Their approval (other countries, I mean) earlier of this so-called "super safe" sedative caused some of the most grotesque limb malformations imaginable to people-- that totally trusted the medical community at the time. The makers of this product clearly knew the dangers, but in the interest of greed and money, openly chose to ignore the findings. Essentially, doctors and pharmacists were lied to in accepting their literature presented to our FDA. The authors state that metabolism of this product by our bodies generate over 100 byproducts, each capable of doing this or that, and I am not quite sure this is true. However, there is the attempt now to bring the drug back to the FDA for approval for use in "certain" other types of trajic disease states, such as MS or HIV. I can assure you, I have spoken to both CDER and the FDA, and this will happen ONLY if this product verifies properly every sentence they write in the literature and-- proves out as such in every milligram of discovery is verified. Whether Dr. Kelsay was just stubborn, wise, or lucky is irrevalent now, as she IS the person who, ultimately gave the FDA the power that it has today. An event like this often, is the defining moment of such governmental entities. However, the FDA is not without comflicts of interest as you will find out. The voting methods used on products even today, sometimes seem to contradict rationale on both sides of some of the issues troubling approval of certain medicinal products and devices. Rock Brynner and Trent Stephens do an excellent job of keeping the book on task, and full of suspense, describing the tasks done by the pharmaceutical firm to cover all of the little nasty secrets they had earlier hidden, including all of the free samples given to physicians and pharmacists to be handed out like rock candy during Christmas. Some texts I have read try to make a point that only one stereochemical form of the drug is bad, this is not important. The body often will transform between isoforms (R and S), so this is moot to me. If you needed to pick a choice of this trajic story, and the heroic job done by one person to whom we as Americans should be indebted, it is this one. This book is a winner!

I bought this remarkable book last year and have recommended it to several people. I know next to nothing about medicine, so it came as a revelation. When I was a child in the 1960s, this mysterious horror always lurked in the distance, terrifying but incomprehensible. Like nuclear fallout or the mercury poisoning of Minamata, thalidomide was an important symbol of Frankenstein technology, but I didn't read a proper study of the nightmare until I read 'Dark Remedy' last year.

Like many adolescents of my generation, I also enjoyed 'thalidomide jokes'. We thought these were very funny. At the time, I had no understanding of the terrible death and misery the drug inflicted on thousands of children.

Despite the suffering it caused, thalidomide has undergone an amazing 'second act'. Almost unbelievably, the Frankenstein monster has been reborn to do some good. In the 1960s, researches discovered that it could cure the lesions caused by an autoimmune disease called ENL. A decade later, it was found to be very effective for curing the lesions caused by leprosy (Hansen's disease); in fact, it was the only cure. In the 1980s, it was found to be extremely good for treating some of the symptoms of AIDS. It is now used to treat as many as 130 disorders. Who could have imagined that the drug that caused the worst medical disaster of the 1950s could be used to ameliorate the worst medical disaster of the 1980s?

'Dark Remedy' should be read be everyone who is interested in science and health.

As outlined above, this book details the history of thalidomide, including its discovery, introduction into society, harmful effects, withdrawal, and eventual rebirth as a useful medication. It is very interesting and keeps your attention throughout the entire book. I am a physician and learned very much from this book, including some information about the FDA, and even about what thalidomide is used for today. I would say that you should read this book if you have any interest in medical history told in a narrative fashion. It will educate you on a tragic event in history and the amazing effects of medications upon human beings. Great, great, great book!