Did Mrs. Murphy Abuse the Stimulant Benzedrine? Or Did She Have ADHD?

Send us a textWelcome to an historical—and musical—perspective on the early stimulant Benzedrine and how its legendary misuse might have created lasting stigma around ADHD and neurostimulants. Harry “The Hipster” Gibson wrote and performed Who Put the Benzedrine in Mrs. Murphy’s Ovaltine in 1944. Some medical historians would place 1944 smack in the middle of the “amphetamine epidemic” in the U.S.. (It happened elsewhere, too. In the UK, ...