"Development history
It is often claimed that BZP was originally synthesized as a potential antihelminthic (anti-parasitic) agent for use in farm animals.[5] However, there are some references to BZP in medical literature that predate interest in piperazines as antihelminthics. Even so, the majority of the early work with the piperazines were investigations into their potential use as antihelminthics with the earliest clinical trials in the literature relating to piperazine being articles in the British Medical Journal in the 1950s.[6][7] It was discovered that BZP had side effects and was largely abandoned as a worm treatment. It next appears in the literature in the 1970s when it was investigated as a potential antidepressant medication, but rejected when research reported that BZP had amphetamine-like effects and was liable to abuse. The study suggested that BZP “should be placed under statutory control similar to those regulating the use of amphetamine.”
