Antabuse: C10H20N2S4 or bis(diethylthiocarbamyl) disulfide
This compound
inhibits the
enzyme aldehyde dehydrogenase, which means you can't fully metabolise
alcohol, causing a build up of
aldehydes. This results in severe
nausea and
vomiting; think the worst hangover you've ever had! No wonder it makes a good
aversion treatment for
alcoholism.
Many
sulphur containing compounds
smell, and
by-products of this produced in the body can give the side effect of
bad breath.
CH3CH2 CH2CH3
\ S S /
N-C-S-S-C-N
/ \
CH3CH2 CH2CH3
This the story of how this
chemical came to be used as a treatment for alcoholism is interesting, it begins soon after WWII in a
Danish company, Medicinalco. At that time it was company
policy for employees to test new products on themselves, so when Dr Jens Hald and the head of medical research, Dr Erik Jacobsen started taking disulfiram nobody was very much surprised.
They had already established that it killed
intesinal parasites in
rabbits, and was effective against
scabies. In humans however, it seemed to occasionally give rise to a nasty case of vomitting, after lunch! Neither of the Doctors could pin down the exact cause, until Hald had a
cognac with a friend. He immediately showed the troublesome
side-effects, whilst his friend was fine.
The penny dropped.... further conversations with Jacobsen, and then tests on co-workers confirmed that it was the
combination of alcohol and disulfiram that caused the sickness! This made it pretty much useless for human parasites, and the project was
shelved.
A few years passed, and Jacobsen had started to use the story as an amusing
anecdote, which in 1947 the
Copenhagen newspaper
Berlingske Tidende reported. It was the alcoholics themselves that approached Jacobsen for disulfiram, and after suitable
clinical trails it's usage was approved help people break their dependence on
alcohol.
'The Consumer's Good Chemical Guide, John Emsley. W.H. Freeman ISBN 0-7167-3034-0 (pbk)
pp68-69