Blunt and ischemic injuries of the brain have been shown to result in swelling that is predominantly limited to a single cell type, the astrocyte, within the complex cellular mosiac of cerebral gray matter. Evaluation of various diuretic (aryloxy)acetic acids in vitro using incubating cat brain slices and primary astrocyte cultures identified compounds with marked ability to inhibit brain tissue swelling. Some of the compounds significantly reduced the mortality and morbidity following acceleration/deceleration brain injury in anesthesized cats. A variety of (indanyloxy)alkanoic acids were synthesized which were analogous to the dually active (indanyloxy)acetic acids. Some of the 4-(indanyloxy)butanoic acids were found to be devoid of diuretic activity but to possess equal or greater activity than the dually active compounds in the in vitro and in vivo brain assays. Selected examples from both the (indanyloxy)acetic and 4-(indanyloxy)butanoic acid series showed marked chiral effects, with one enantiomer generally exhibiting a much greater activity than the other. A clinical study of severely head-injured patients treated with ethacrynic acid demonstrated a significantly improved outcome when compared to controls. These data suggest a clinical advantage for the nondiuretic (aryloxy)alkanoic acids which possess in vitro and in vivo activities in the cat brain assays that are comparable or superior to dually active compounds.