Miltown? No Martinis!

Warning to users of tranquilizing drugs: they should not be taken with alcohol. At San Francisco's Langley Porter Clinic three University of California researchers gave about four jiggers of bourbon each to 18 alcoholics, told them to lie down on a surgical table. Most subjects complied, made no fuss. A week later they got the whisky with the tranquilizer chlorpromazine: some lay down on the table, promptly went to sleep and snored loudly; others became loud and boisterous; some were "gay and irresponsible"; most had slurred speech. By blood tests, the researchers found that the drug had not only increased the effect of alcohol but had actually boosted the amount circulating in the blood and brain, and had altered the chemical processes by which the body breaks down alcohol.

Tests on medical students with chlorpromazine, meprobamate (Miltown), reserpine and Phenergan (an antihistamine) coupled with alcohol produced still more bizarre effects. The less hardened drinkers went in for such high jinks as pushing each other into showers.

Concluded the researchers: "This finding makes it imperative for the millions of persons taking tranquilizing drugs--an estimated 48 million prescriptions this year--to be careful of their drinking when they are driving or around potentially dangerous machinery."

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