Capsules

P: Trouble for iproniazid, the remarkable new anti-depression drug introduced last year (TIME, Dec. 16), was sparked last week by the death of a San Francisco woman whose physician prescribed it. A coroner's jury ruled that her death (of hepatitis) was directly due to the drug, which is trade-named Marsilid by its maker, Hoffman-La Roche Inc. of Nutley. N.J. In January and February the drug house cut the recommended daily dosage for moderately depressed patients from 150 milligrams to a maximum of 50. It tried to notify most practicing U.S. physicians, but the information never reached the woman's doctor. Last week the company began renotifying some 145,000 physicians, and. by order of the Food and Drug Administration, will recall from druggists' shelves all Marsilid packages bearing the old dosage label.

P:Smokers who cannot break the habit may owe it all to mother, according to Harvard Psychologists Charles McArthur. Ellen Waldron and John Dickinson. They found that the quitting ability of 250 subjects (Harvard graduates, classes of '38 to '42) was directly proportional to the number of months they spent as infants at their mothers' breasts. Those weaned at eight months were easily able to stop smoking; those at six months still had a chance. But the most confirmed (and heaviest) smokers had taken to the bottle at four months, say the psychologists, too early to satisfy oral need and later keep them off the weed.

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