Father Given Forever Prescription of Thorazine

In the early 1970's, my father 'cracked up', 'had a nervous breakdown'. He found some Psychiatrist in the phone book, went for one appointment. He was given a prescription for thorazine with a forever refillable allowance. He never went back to the doctor, or any doctor.

He sat and stared like a zombie.

He turned jaundice.

He went to the VA hospital finally. The doctor took a biopsy. He came out of the OR to tell my mother who sat in the waiting room. He simply made a thumbs down gesture. She asked what that meant. He said my father had pancreatic cancer that had spread all over and gave him a few weeks to live.

Of course, she didn't tell me anything until after he died. I was a kid. She didn't think a kid needed to know her father was dying.

Nobody believes the thorazine story. They say it's not possible. It really did happen. My mother even still remembers the name of the doctor. Possibly the doctor wasn't even a real doctor, IDK.

Thanks for sharing this, TishaBuv. I'm old enough that I believe this. Times were different back then...

I also believe you. Thorazine is an extremely hardcore psych med that I always understood wasn't something to mess around with.

The medical community as a whole refuses to acknowledge the harmful side-effects of any meds. And if they do, it's the 'we have to weigh the benefits against the risks' type thing never telling you the list of risks is as long as your arm.

Thorazine is more toxic than some of the more modern medicines. High doses in particular can be dangrous and cause long term problems. Scary thing is, a lot of docs knew about that once Thorazine went into widespread use. But they used it on "mental patients," so nobody cared.

I'm sorry about your father. I belive you.

I have a bottle of Thorazine, had it for a couple months now , we found when I was Ip and I hadn't slept at all basically for 4-5 days and my fibro pain went through the roof I took 50mg ... Wow I slept and slept and it knocked my pain down , I was thrilled that I found a med that I could take if I hit like day 5 and no sleep and or my pain has me feeling suicidal I have something to take.

Have I taken a dose since ??? Nope ! And I won't unless I really really need it.

When I was in-patient at the age of 16-17, in the mid 70's, I too was given thorazine along with all the other hard core meds. When I was finally discharged, after 1 year, I was just on the thorazine. I took 150 mg at night for years, because of my very suicidal behavior. After getting married and getting pregnant I was taken off the thorazine....thank god. It did help my suicidal behavior, and sleep:-) but am thankful that there are now newer meds with less side effects and better results. I am also thankful that ECT is given in a much different way then when I 1st received it, again in the 70's.

I am so sorry that your father was treated during such a backward time and do believe your story. I hope that you can come to some peace with his treatment, because back then that was the only treatments out there. Was the pancreatic cancer found to be related to the Thorazine?

The doctors at the VA insisted he had to have been an alcoholic. He wasn't, hardly drank at all. He smoked 4 packs of cigarettes a day, lit one with the other. He knew they were going to kill him and he didn't care.