THERAPEUTICS

A. W. SPENCE (The Lancet, October 24, 1936) describes his observations on the use of restrin in the treatment of toxic goitre. There is no doubt that the gonads are affected by the thyreoid, but the evidence with regard to any effect on the thyreoid due to gonad secretion is conflicting. After experiments on guinea-pigs the author concluded that restrin had a slight antithyreotropic effect. In view of this he tried the effect of restrin in large doses in patients with toxic goitre. Six women between the ages of twenty and fifty-six were treated by intramuscular injection of 50,000 international units of dihydroxyrestrin daily for twelve days in two cases and for twenty-one days in two other cases. Two patients received 250,000 international units of ketohydroxyrestrin daily for twenty-one days. The only toxic symptom was nausea in one case. There was little effect to be noted in the clinical condition of the patients, and that effect could have been due to rest alone; however, a decrease of nervousness and in the pulse rate and a gain in weight were noted in some patients. There was no great fall in the basal metabolic rate.