Pain and Profits
Subtitle: The History of the Headache and Its Remedies in America
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Published: August 2004
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 239
ISBN-13: 9780813534404
Subjects: History of specific subjects; Pharmaceutical industries; Pharmacology; Treatment; Medical / Nursing; Medical; USA; Neurology - Headache; Neurology - General; Headache; History
First sentence: On the sunny spring morning of 9 April 1865, a few miles west of the small Virginia town of Appomattox court House, General Ulysses S. Grant, commander of the Union forces, was in no mood to admire the weather.
Description: Tells the story of how a common ailment (the headache) became the center of a multibillion dollar pharmaceutical industry in the United States. Despite the increasing authority of the medical profession in the twentieth century, treatment of this condition has remained largely in the hands of the public. Using the headache as a case study, and advertising as a significant source of information, the author traces the beginnings of the modern over-the-counter industry.