Society Speed

Dr. Max Jacobson accompanied President John F. Kennedy to his 1961 summit meeting with Nikita Khrushchev in Vienna, visited Kennedy at the White House and was often heard to boast that he treated both the Chief Executive and his wife. Last week the New York Times reported that the German-born G.P. could have done a good deal more name-dropping from his roster of rich and famous patients. The Times also suggested that those patients were getting some startling treatments. Dr. Jacobson, said the Times, had been dispensing amphetamines, the powerful stimulants known to the drug culture as "speed." He had given injections to dozens of the country's leading writers, politicians and jet-setters to elevate their moods and help them to perform better.

The story takes pains to point out that there is no proof that either President or Mrs. Kennedy received amphetamines from Jacobson. Nor does it say which of those on Jacobson's patient list--which included such names as Author Truman Capote, Playwright Tennessee Williams, Singer Eddie Fisher and the late President's brother-in-law, Prince Stanislas Radziwill--actually got speed. But the story does establish that amphetamines were often a part of Jacobson's prescriptions.

Many of Jacobson's patients regard him as a virtual magician whose treatments have been essential to their careers. Others have found the price of performance too high. Amphetamine users often become heavily dependent on the drug, which can produce the symptoms of schizophrenia. Many amphetamine users experience delusions and feelings of paranoia; some become depressed and suicidal.

Several of Jacobson's patients suffered bad effects from their treatment. Film Producer Otto Preminger, a patient for a short time, quit because the shots made him feel "terrible." Said he: "It was one of the most fearful experiences of my life and I'd never go again." Tennessee Williams' brother says that the playwright spent three months in a mental hospital after Jacobson's treatments. Another patient, Photographer Mark Shaw, died of an overdose of amphetamines.

Stories of drug-dispensing "Dr. Feelgoods" have been part of medical folklore for some time and have occasionally surfaced in print. But none have been so startling as the Times's disclosure. At least a dozen of the paper's reporters and researchers worked on the project during the last five months. Jacobson lost little time in defending himself and blasting what he termed "inaccuracies and distortions." He did not deny that at least some of his patients received amphetamines. Said he: "I have satisfied myself [that] in small amounts and [under] close supervision amphetamine can be a valuable tool in a doctor's hand." The dosages, he maintained, were "a good deal lower than those prescribed in the so-called weight-reduction pills."

Moral Issue. The story raised some grave questions. Should the sanctity of the doctor-patient relationship be maintained even with Presidents, whose decisions can affect the safety, not to mention the survival, of the nation? Or should presidential prescriptions be made a matter of public record? Indeed, should doctors prescribe amphetamines at all? "If the case of Dr. Jacobson were unique, we would have only a small problem," says Dr. Willard Gaylin of the Institute of Society, Ethics and the Life Sciences in Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y. "Unfortunately, it is not. Doctors round the country are still prescribing amphetamines massively, usually in the guise of weight control. But what they really do is give a lift."

Doctors may not be able to dole out such highs much longer. The American Medical Association regards amphetamine abuse as widespread and has asked all doctors to limit the drug's use to those conditions for which it is specifically indicated, such as narcolepsy (a condition characterized by brief attacks of deep sleep) and hyperkinesis (excessive activity) among children. The Federal Government may go even further. The Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs has placed amphetamines on the list of controlled substances for which it sets manufacturing quotas. Studies now under way could lead to a reduction in these quotas.

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