German and Allied troops liberally used performing-enhancing drugs during World War II to stay awake for days at a time and have the ability to perform longer under punishing conditions, according to a documentary currently airing on PBS.
In "Secrets of the Dead: World War Speed," World War II historian James Holland documents the use of amphetamines during the war and how it unleashed the "world's first pharmacological arms race."
Nazi troops first started using the methamphetamine Pervitin in the 1930s. The stimulant, created by a German pharmacologist and manufactured by Temmler Pharmaceutical, was given to Luftwaffe pilots to keep them awake and alive if their plane was shot down. German troops used the drug again in the 1940s ahead of the battle to conquer Poland.
British soldiers started using the amphetamine Benzedrine after discovering Pervitin in a downed German plane in the south of England.
The drug, said Holland, "stops you from sleeping, but it doesn't stop you from feeling fatigued. Your body has no chance to recover from the fatigue it's suffering, so there comes a point where you come off the drug and you just collapse, you can't function."
The Allies adopted the drug for its mood-altering capabilities; it increased aggression and confidence and provided a morale boost, according to Nicolas Rasmussen, a professor in the School of Humanities and Languages at the University of New South Wales in Australia.
Some of the long-term consequences of methamphetamine use include extreme weight loss, addiction, memory loss, violent behavior, paranoia.
"By the end of the second World War, you saw increasing knowledge of the side effects of these drugs. What you don't see is what to do with people once they become hooked — that's something that had to be learned the hard way in the years that followed," Holland told Live Science.
"The full extent of addiction and how harmful they can be was not properly understood," Holland said. "At the end of the war, there was very little help offered for people who became addicted."
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