HONOLULU STAR-BULLETIN

NIXON USED MOOD-ALTERING DRUGS, WAS CONSIDERED NEUROTIC, BIO SAYS

WASHINGTON -- President Nixon used a mood-altering prescription drug in the White House and, depressed by hostile public reaction to the bombing of Cambodia in 1970, he consulted a New York psychotherapist who considered him "neurotic," according to a biography to be published Monday.

And concern about Nixon's mental state in 1974 led the secretary of defense, James R. Schlesinger, to order all military units not to react to orders from "the White House" unless they were cleared with him or the secretary of state, writes Anthony Summers in "The Arrogance of Power: The Secret World of Richard Nixon."

Schlesinger confirmed the account in an interview yesterday, and said the book's description of events was the most complete and most accurate account of his actions. The book quotes him as saying: "I am proud of my role in protecting the integrity of the chain of command. You could say it was synonymous with protecting the Constitution." He confirmed yesterday that that was how he felt.

The book reports that the prescription drug Dilantin was given to Nixon in 1968 by Jack Dreyfus, founder of the Dreyfus Fund and an enthusiastic promoter and user of the drug, after Dreyfus had dinner with Nixon and friends in Florida. Confirming the account, Dreyfus said in an interview last week that the drug is effective in dealing with "fear, worry, guilt, panic, anger and related emotions, irritability, rage, mood, depression, violent behavior, hyperglycemia, alcohol, anorexia, bulimia and binge eating, cardiac arrhythmia, (and) muscular disorders."

Dreyfus said in the interview that he gave Nixon a bottle of a thousand 100-milligram capsules, "when his mood wasn't too good." He said Nixon scoffed when he said they should be prescribed by a doctor and later gave the president another 1,000 capsules. In the book, Dreyfus says Nixon told him, "To heck with the doctor."

Dr. Richard A. Friedman, director of the psychopharmacology clinic at Cornell medical school, said in an interview Thursday that Dilantin was properly used to prevent convulsions but has been discredited for psychiatric use. He said Dilantin has "potentially very serious side effect risks, like change of mental status, person becoming confused, loss of memory, irritability, (and) definitely could have an effect on cognitive function."

Nixon's pre-presidency treatments by Dr. Arnold A. Hutschnecker have been reported. But the White House and Nixon allies steadfastly denied that Nixon was treated once he became president. Robbyn Swan, Summers' wife and collaborator, said in a telephone interview that she had interviewed Hutschnecker in 1995 and 1997, and that he had indicated that while he had seen Nixon rarely while he was president, they maintained in contact, apparently by telephone.

Speaking from their home near Waterford, Ireland, she played a tape recording of part of an interview with Hutschnecker, in which he said of Nixon: "He didn't have a serious psychiatric diagnosis. He wasn't psychotic. He had no pathology, but he had a good portion of neurotic symptoms: anxiety" and sleeplessness.

Hutschnecker, who is 102 and living in Sherman, Conn., declined to be interviewed. Juan Gonzales, who is caring for Hutschnecker, said the doctor "could hardly speak."

Swan said she last saw the doctor a few months ago. He was in a wheelchair and did not speak, although he agreed to be photographed for a TV documentary by the History Channel and the BBC. "The Arrogance of Power" will be published by Viking and will tentatively sell for $29.95.