Cargando…

Cortisone in Popular Culture: Roueché, Ray, and Hench

In this article, the authors offer a new perspective on how the administration of Compound E (ie, cortisone) to a volunteer Mayo Clinic patient with rheumatoid arthritis and the patient’s subsequent miraculous improvement led not only to a major, successful clinical trial but also a Nobel Prize. The...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Wijdicks, Eelco F.M., Rooke, Thomas W., Hunder, Gene G., Dacy, Matthew D.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Elsevier 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6543452/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31193896
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.mayocpiqo.2019.04.003
_version_ 1783423082073948160
author Wijdicks, Eelco F.M.
Rooke, Thomas W.
Hunder, Gene G.
Dacy, Matthew D.
author_facet Wijdicks, Eelco F.M.
Rooke, Thomas W.
Hunder, Gene G.
Dacy, Matthew D.
author_sort Wijdicks, Eelco F.M.
collection PubMed
description In this article, the authors offer a new perspective on how the administration of Compound E (ie, cortisone) to a volunteer Mayo Clinic patient with rheumatoid arthritis and the patient’s subsequent miraculous improvement led not only to a major, successful clinical trial but also a Nobel Prize. The early and late side effects as an undesirable outcome of treatment of corticosteroids would soon follow. Corticosteroid side effects became known in popular culture, first through an indepth article in The New Yorker by medical journalist Berton Roueché, and later through a major fiction film, Bigger than Life, directed by Nicholas Ray. The film used cortisone as a plot device to “unmask” what the filmmaker perceived to be the lie of middle class prosperity in America of the 1950s. Bigger than Life is also a cinematic argument against the use of cortisone. Dr. Philip Hench was also connected to Bigger than Life, and the Ray-Hench connection is further explored based on newly found material. The discovery of “wonder drug” cortisone and its potential side effects—all carefully described in the Roueché article but exaggerated in Nicholas Ray’s film in the 1950s—show how medicine can be portrayed in popular culture.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-6543452
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2019
publisher Elsevier
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-65434522019-06-04 Cortisone in Popular Culture: Roueché, Ray, and Hench Wijdicks, Eelco F.M. Rooke, Thomas W. Hunder, Gene G. Dacy, Matthew D. Mayo Clin Proc Innov Qual Outcomes Special Article In this article, the authors offer a new perspective on how the administration of Compound E (ie, cortisone) to a volunteer Mayo Clinic patient with rheumatoid arthritis and the patient’s subsequent miraculous improvement led not only to a major, successful clinical trial but also a Nobel Prize. The early and late side effects as an undesirable outcome of treatment of corticosteroids would soon follow. Corticosteroid side effects became known in popular culture, first through an indepth article in The New Yorker by medical journalist Berton Roueché, and later through a major fiction film, Bigger than Life, directed by Nicholas Ray. The film used cortisone as a plot device to “unmask” what the filmmaker perceived to be the lie of middle class prosperity in America of the 1950s. Bigger than Life is also a cinematic argument against the use of cortisone. Dr. Philip Hench was also connected to Bigger than Life, and the Ray-Hench connection is further explored based on newly found material. The discovery of “wonder drug” cortisone and its potential side effects—all carefully described in the Roueché article but exaggerated in Nicholas Ray’s film in the 1950s—show how medicine can be portrayed in popular culture. Elsevier 2019-05-27 /pmc/articles/PMC6543452/ /pubmed/31193896 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.mayocpiqo.2019.04.003 Text en © 2019 THE AUTHORS https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
spellingShingle Special Article
Wijdicks, Eelco F.M.
Rooke, Thomas W.
Hunder, Gene G.
Dacy, Matthew D.
Cortisone in Popular Culture: Roueché, Ray, and Hench
title Cortisone in Popular Culture: Roueché, Ray, and Hench
title_full Cortisone in Popular Culture: Roueché, Ray, and Hench
title_fullStr Cortisone in Popular Culture: Roueché, Ray, and Hench
title_full_unstemmed Cortisone in Popular Culture: Roueché, Ray, and Hench
title_short Cortisone in Popular Culture: Roueché, Ray, and Hench
title_sort cortisone in popular culture: roueché, ray, and hench
topic Special Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6543452/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31193896
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.mayocpiqo.2019.04.003
work_keys_str_mv AT wijdickseelcofm cortisoneinpopularculturerouecherayandhench
AT rookethomasw cortisoneinpopularculturerouecherayandhench
AT hundergeneg cortisoneinpopularculturerouecherayandhench
AT dacymatthewd cortisoneinpopularculturerouecherayandhench