Dinitrophenol and obesity: an early twentieth-century regulatory dilemma.
In the early 1930s, the industrial chemical dinitrophenol found widespread favor as a weight-loss drug, due principally to the work of Maurice Tainter, a clinical pharmacologist from Stanford University. Unfortunately the compound's therapeutic index was razor thin and it was not until thousands of people suffered irreversible harm that mainstream physicians realized that dinitrophenol's risks outweighed its benefits and abandoned its use. Yet, it took passage of the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act in 1938 before federal regulators had the ability to stop patent medicine men from selling dinitrophenol to Americans lured by the promise of a drug that would safely melt one's fat away.
Colman
Eric
E
Division of Metabolism and Endocrinology Products, Office of Drug Evaluation II, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 10903 New Hampshire Avenue, Silver Spring, MD 20993, USA. eric.colman@fda.hhs.gov
D019440:Anti-Obesity Agents / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000266:history / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use; D004140:Dinitrophenols / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000266:history / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D007880:Legislation, Drug / Q000266:history*; D009765:Obesity / Q000188:drug therapy*; D010820:Physicians; D011781:Quackery / Q000266:history; D014481:United States; D014486:United States Food and Drug Administration / Q000266:history / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence
D019440:Anti-Obesity Agents; D004140:Dinitrophenols