Observations on Thiocyanate Therapy in Hypertension

During the past few years there have appeared several references in the medical literature indicating favorable results from the use of thiocyanate in the treatment of hypertension. Certain commercial drug firms are now exploiting the favorable impression created, by placing on the market various preparations of this drug, often combined with other substances. Our results with sodium thiocyanate have been so unfavorable, even when no allowance is made for the normal fluctuations in blood pressure in our hypertensive patients, that it seemed worth while to put them into the literature. The thiocyanates, especially the sodium and potassium salts, were found by Pauli 1 to lower the blood pressure in patients with primary hypertension. These salts were first used in this country by Bentley and LeRoy, 2 who obtained quite similar results. More recently Nichols, 3 Smith and Rudolf, 4 Gager, 5 Palmer, Silver and White 6 and Fineberg 7 have