Brown glass bottle with a stained peach and white label for Watson's Pharmacy powdered opium. Opium has been used in medicine, rituals, and cooking by several societies since about 5000 B.C.E. While this medication doesn't indicate what it treated, opium and laudanum were routinely prescribed for conditions such as sleeplessness, fever, headache, cough, bladder inflammation, diarrhea, nervous disorders, and more.