So, I just finished watching two
seasons of 'Hannibal', which is a really good series by the way, hence
the two season watching marathon; though I don't know if I should be alarmed by
the fact that I often felt hungry while watching it.
Anyway, in one of the episodes, a character was given a dose of sodium thiopental before being questioned. This got me wondering whether there was any validity to the use of this drug in such 'truth seeking' applications; or whether it was merely one of those Hollywood contrivances.
When I searched the keywords 'truth serum' it was in the expectation that there was going to be loads of interesting Ian Fleming, John le Carré type information for me to read through, but that was not the case. In fact, the majority of the information I found pertained to the drug having been administered as the agent of lethal injection in American death penalty cases. That said, I will touch on both applications, in brief.
Be forewarned, much of the 'truth
serum' information below was gleaned from the CIA website, so if that's not
your thing, well, there it is...
Oh, and for a wee glimpse at sodium thiopental in action, simply click on this link: Pain, Pus and Poison: The Search for Modern Medicine BBC Four.
***
In the
early 1900’s, physician’s began administering the drug scopolamine, along with
morphine and chloroform, to induce a state of 'twilight sleep' during
childbirth.[1]
Physicians noted that women in 'twilight sleep' would often volunteer exceedingly candid information.[1]
In 1922 it occurred to one Dallas, Texas obstetrician
named Robert House, that a similar technique might be employed in the
interrogation of suspected criminals.[1]
However, because it had a number of undesirable side
effects (hallucinations and disturbed perception, among others), scopolamine
was disqualified in its application as a 'truth' eliciting drug.[1]
Still attracted by the possibility that drugs might
help in the interrogation of suspects and witnesses, law enforcement agencies
turned to a class of depressant drugs known as barbiturates.[1]
By 1935 Clarence W. Muehlberger, head of the Michigan
Crime Detection Laboratory at East Lansing, was using barbiturates on reluctant
suspects.[1]
Three barbiturates that have been used as 'truth'
drugs are sodium amytal (amobarbital), pentothal sodium (thiopental), and to a
lesser extent seconal (secobarbital).[1]
The barbiturates, as a class, decrease higher cortical
brain functioning. Some psychiatrists hypothesize that because lying is more
complex than telling the truth, suppression of the higher cortical functions
may lead to the uncovering of the truth. However, the reliability of
confessions made under thiopental is questionable.[3][21]
“The barbiturates, by disrupting defensive patterns, may sometimes be helpful in interrogation, but even under the best conditions they will elicit an output contaminated by deception, fantasy, garbled speech, etc. ... It is possible, [however,] for both normal individuals and psychopaths to resist drug interrogation; it seems likely that any individual who can withstand ordinary intensive interrogation can hold out in narcosis.”
Psychiatrists have used thiopental to desensitize patients with phobias,[4][3] and to "facilitate the recall of painful repressed memories."[5][3]
From the CIA website:[1]
"The use of so-called 'truth' drugs in police work is similar to the accepted psychiatric practice of narco-analysis; the difference in the two procedures lies in their different objectives. The police investigator is concerned with empirical truth that may be used against the suspect, and therefore almost solely with probative truth: the usefulness of the suspect's revelations depends ultimately on their acceptance in evidence by a court of law. The psychiatrist, on the other hand, using the same 'truth' drugs in diagnosis and treatment of the mentally ill, is primarily concerned with psychological truth or psychological reality rather than empirical fact."
While there have been many clinical studies on the
efficacy of narco-analysis in interrogation or lie detection, there is no
agreement that any of these studies qualify as randomized controlled studies,
which are the scientific standard for determining such effectiveness.[1][6-9]
In 1963 the US Supreme Court ruled that confessions
produced as a result of administering truth serum were "unconstitutionally
coerced" and therefore inadmissible.[1][10]
Whether or not barbiturates can be
used to relax and thus elicit confessions and/or retrieve factual information
from otherwise unwilling individuals remains open for debate.
And whether or not a set of circumstances exists wherein it can ever be deemed acceptable to employ such tactics, is an even more divisive and controversial question, and one well beyond the dabbling scope of this blog.
***
 |
| Execution room in the San Quentin State Prison in California [22] |
Along with pancuronium
bromide and potassium chloride, thiopental was used in
the United States to execute prisoners by lethal injection. Death
usually occurred within ten minutes of the beginning of the injection process,
though some have taken longer.[3][11]
On December 8, 2009, Ohio became the first state to
use a single dose of sodium thiopental for its capital execution. The decision
followed the failed use of the standard three-drug cocktail during an
execution, due to the inability to locate suitable veins.[3][12]
The United Kingdom introduced a ban on the
export of sodium thiopental in December 2010,[3][13] after it was
established that no European supplies to the US were being used for any purpose
other than lethal injection.[3][14] The restrictions were based on
"the European Union Torture Regulation (including licensing of drugs used
in execution by lethal injection)."[3][15]
In December 2011 the European Union extended trade restrictions to prevent the export of certain medicinal products for capital punishment, stating that "the Union disapproves of capital punishment in all circumstances and works towards its universal abolition."[3][16]
Following a shortage of the drug (and one which happened to lead to the delay of an execution), a company spokesman for Hospira, the sole American manufacturer of thiopental, publicly objected to its use in lethal injection.[3]
"Hospira manufactures this product because it improves or saves lives, and the company markets it solely for use as indicated on the product labeling. The drug is not indicated for capital punishment, and Hospira does not support its use in this procedure."[3][17]
On January 21, 2011, Hospira announced it would stop
production of sodium thiopental from its plant in Italy because it
could not guarantee Italian authorities that the drug would not be used in
executions. Italy was the only viable place where the company could produce
sodium thiopental, leaving the United States without a supplier.[3][18]
This decision was not without consequences for the medical communities in both Canada and the United States.[19][20]
Sodium thiopental is a core medicine in the World Health Organization's "Essential Drugs List", which is a list of minimum medical needs for a basic healthcare system.[2][3]
Sodium thiopental is considered a first-line anesthetic in many cases, including those involving geriatric, neurologic, cardiovascular and obstetric patients; patients for whom the side effects of other medications could lead to serious complications.[19][20]
The decision by Hospira Inc. to exit the market over concerns about the drug’s use in lethal injections in the United States, left both American and Canadian physicians without a supplier and scrambling for alternatives.[19][20]
Oh, and just in case anyone is wondering what the various American states are now using for lethal injection, the following link provides a tabulated summary, state by state: http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/state-lethal-injection.
UPDATES / RELATED
Supreme Court Decision Aside, Lethal Injection Looks Increasingly Unsustainable / Scientific American / July 9, 2015
REFERENCES
[2] "WHO Model List of
Essential Medicines" (PDF). World Health Organization. March 2005.
[3]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_thiopental
[4] Pearlman,
T. (1980). "Behavioral
desensitization of phobic anxiety using thiopental sodium". The American Journal of Psychiatry (American Psychiatric Association) 137 (12):
1580–1582. PMID 6108082.
[5] "Drugged
Future?". TIME.
February 24, 1958.
[6] There
is some controversy to this point; see IJME debate in Jesani, Amar
(Oct–Dec 2006). "Medical
professionals and interrogation: lies about finding the 'truth'". Indian
Journal of Medical Ethics (Editorial) (Mumbai) 3 (4):
116. A PubMed search found 26 references from 1997 to 2001 (or 5.2 publications
per year), but in less than five years (2002 to July 2006) the number has more
than tripled to 83 or 16.6 publications per year. Many of these are randomised
controlled trials. and Jesani, Amar (Jan–Mar 2007)."Misconceptions
about narco analysis". Indian Journal of Medical
Ethics (Editorial reply) (Mumbai) 4 (1): 7. It is true that
the number of research publications on lie detection has tripled during
2002-2006. But no material has been produced that can be described as
randomised controlled trials.
[7] A simple search: Misquitta, Neville (28
Feb 2011). "Narcoanalysis
- spies, lies and truth serum". Psychiatry and Society in
Pune (blog). A PubMed search using
the MeSH term ‘narcotherapy’ gives just two articles in the last ten years.
There are no randomised control studies - the scientific standard - to
demonstrate the reproducibility of results obtained by narcoanalysis for
information gathering or lie detection.
[8] Lakshman, Sriram (May 2007). "Narcoanalysis
and some hard facts". Frontline 24 (9). Given the nature of narcoanalysis, it is
not possible to get volunteers to facilitate controlled studies.
[9] Bimmerle, George. "Truth"
Drugs in Interrogation. Center for the Study of Intelligence(Technical
report) 5 (CIA). 2. Retrieved 12
March 2013. The almost total absence of controlled experimental
studies of "truth" drugs and the spotty and anecdotal nature of
psychiatric and police evidence require that extrapolations to intelligence
operations be made with care.
[10] Townsend v. Sain, Sheriff, et al., 372
U.S. 293, 307-308
[11] "Ohio
executes inmate with 1-drug lethal injection". Associated Press.
December 2001.
[12] Martinez, Edecio (8 December 2009). "Kenneth
Biros Execution: Ohio Man First to Die Under 1-Drug Thiopental Sodium
Method". CBS News.
[17] McKinley, Jesse (28 September 2010). "Judges
Question California's Motivation on Execution". New
York Times.
[18] "U.S.
Drug Maker Discontinues Key Death Penalty Drug". Fox News. 21 January
2011.
[21] "Truth
Serums". Television Tropes & Idioms.
[22]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lethal_injection
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
IMAGE CREDITS
"Pentothal
vintage package - truth serum" by eurok from Paris, France -
PentothalUploaded by JohnnyMrNinja. Licensed under CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia
Commons -
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pentothal_vintage_package_-_truth_serum.jpg#mediaviewer/File:Pentothal_vintage_package_-_truth_serum.jpg
"SQ
Lethal Injection Room" by CACorrections (California Department of
Corrections and Rehabilitation) -
http://www.flickr.com/photos/37381942@N04/4905111750/in/set-72157624628981539/.
Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons -
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SQ_Lethal_Injection_Room.jpg#mediaviewer/File:SQ_Lethal_Injection_Room.jpg
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