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  • Article

Coleridge’s hypochondria

An intense focus on his own bodily sensations led poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge to self-medicate with narcotics. But this fascination also put Coleridge ahead of the medical sensibilities of his day.

  • Long read

Rehab centres and the ‘cure’ for addiction

Guy Stagg takes us on a brief history of rehab centres and their approaches to addiction and recovery.

  • Article

Drugs in Victorian Britain

Many common remedies were taken throughout the 19th century, with more people than ever using them. What was the social and cultural context of this development?

  • Article

Belonging and why we long for it

Tanya Perdikou’s upbringing emphasised conventional respectability, but other influential family members embraced the bohemian life. Caught between two sets of values, she questions where, if anywhere, she fits in.

All stories (6)

Images

  • 'The effects of a narcotic'
  • Anaesthesia exhibition, October 1946; first showcase: narcotic and stimulating drugs.
  • Dial (diallylbarbituric acid) : the safest, non-narcotic and non-habit forming hypnotic and sedative.
  • Slow-worm (blind-worm or deaf-adder) anguis fragilis family: Anguidae : DF 118 powerful non-narcotic analgesic.
  • Slow-worm (blind-worm or deaf-adder) anguis fragilis family: Anguidae : DF 118 powerful non-narcotic analgesic.
  • A mosaic of handprints of children, some of which form a hypodermic syringe; representing the use of narcotic drugs by children. Colour lithograph, 200-.
  • Percaine "CIBA" : The new local anaesthetic for regional, infiltration, surface and spinal anaesthesia ... not a narcotic. Economical in use. Belongs chemically to a class entirely different from cocaine & its derivatives / Clayton Aniline Co. Ltd.
  • White bryony (Bryonia dioica. Family: Curcurbitaceae) : DF 118 releases the patient from severe pain...without narcotics.
  • White bryony (Bryonia dioica. Family: Curcurbitaceae) : DF 118 releases the patient from severe pain...without narcotics.
  • The seven sisters of sleep: popular history of the seven prevailing narcotics of the world / [M.C. Cooke].
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