The Tranquilizer Boom.

In 1957 there were seventythree brands of tranquilizers, marketed by thirty-six drug companies, available to Americans by prescription. Most of them were derivatives of the same small group of chemicals that slow down the action of the central nervous system and thus reduce nervous tension and anxiety. In 1956 physicians and psychiatrists wrote thirty-five million prescriptions for tranquilizers—a rate of one every second—and anxious patients paid $150 million to get their pills, or about $4.30 per prescription. In the mid 1950s, when tranquilizer prescriptions could be refilled indefinitely, these new drugs gained a popularity that alarmed some doctors.

Relaxation without Aftereffects.

The most popular tranquilizer, generically called meprobomate, was developed in 1950 by the drug firm Ludwig and Piech from a chemical similar to antifreeze. This medicine, called Miltown, seemed to have all the benefits and none of the side effects of the...