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countable and uncountable, plural thalidomides
(pharmacology) A drug sold during the late 1950s and early 1960s as a sleeping aid, and to pregnant women as an antiemetic to combat morning sickness and other symptoms, but withdrawn as causing severe birth defects, such as phocomelia; currently used to treat leprosy. quotations
I have tried all the medium and short acting non-barbiturate sedatives since the war (including thalidomide) but they don’t work and I don’t trust the newfangled long acting, “safe” analgesics.
1988, E[dward] J[ames] Moran Campbell, Not Always on the Level, [London]: British Medical Journal, page 194