What Is Psychopharmacology?

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Experiences in World War II influenced the lives of the creators of many psychotherapeutic agents.

Charles Suckling honed his skills in fluorine chemistry during Britain's wartime nuclear weapon research.

In 1953, Charles Suckling developed halothane, an early application of "rational psychopharmacology."

This post is part 2 of a series.

In a previous blog, I described the relationship of World War II to the development of psychopharmacology, using the examples of Frank Berger (creator of meprobamate) and Heinz Lehmann (who promoted the clinical use of chlorpromazine). In this post, we will describe how nuclear weapons research in World War II played a role in the development of the inhalational anesthetic halothane, and then close with comments on the relationship of war to both neuroscience and psychopharmacology.

The discovery of halothane

By the 1930s, the limitations of ether and chloroform, discovered almost a century before, were more and more evident, as were those of agents designed to replace them. There was, then, a great need for a safer and more effective anesthetic. How this came about leads us to the story of Charles W. Suckling (1920-2013). Born in Middlesex in southeast England, he inherited a family tradition involving the chemistry of explosives. His maternal grandfather and great-uncle had both worked on gun cotton production in Alfred Nobel’s factory in Ardeer, Ayrshire, and later at the Royal Ordnance factory in Waltham Abbey, Essex, where his paternal grandfather was also employed.

He enrolled in chemistry at the University of Liverpool in 1939. During the early war years, the Liverpool area was heavily bombed; Suckling’s future wife was ‘bombed out’ twice, though not injured. He helped his brother Ted as a fire watcher, and on one memorable occasion, the brothers proudly entered a shelter to........

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