Curiosidades

Wyatt's wife, Mattie, suffered from severe headaches and a laudanum addiction in real life. Originally, laudanum was a tincture of opium containing about 10% raw, powdered opium (equivalent to 1% pure morphine) that was soaked in ethanol. Laudanum has been used in medicine since at least the 17th century, mainly as a pain medication and cough suppressant. Back then, it was prescribed not only for severe pain, but for everyday things like headaches and menstrual cramps. For almost 200 years, laudanum could be purchased from any druggist, which led to several people becoming addicted to the drug. It wasn't until the early 20th century that the addictive properties of opium began to be truly understood, which led to laudanum use being restricted to prescription only, and then later on becoming a controlled substance. Laudanum made in the 20th century replaced raw opium with the less toxic, and more therapeutically useful, opium alkaloids of codeine and morphine. With the advent of safer and more effective synthetic opioids, like oxycodone and hydromorphone, and a better understanding of the severe side effects of mixing opioids with alcohol, the use of laudanum had essentially halted by the mid-20th century. After the creation of the Controlled Substance Act of 1970, laudanum was placed on the Schedule II list of controlled substances, with the FDA limiting its recommended use to only treat severe diarrhea. About the only other time laudanum sees use in modern medicine is to treat neonatal withdrawal syndrome, which is caused by a woman using opioids long-term during pregnancy, thereby causing the fetus to become physically dependent on opioids; once born, the baby goes into opioid withdrawal and needs to be slowly weaned off opioids.