Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post

lordjeebus · 12-16-2003, 07:55 AM

Sodium Pentothal (what is commonly called "truth serum") is not what many people think it is. It can reduce one's inhibitions but can't take away one's self-control. You can't use it to prevent someone from lying.

Also, IIRC, administering drugs to a POW against his will violates the Geneva Convention.

Some info:

Quote:

Starting after World War II as a way of treating war neuroses, psychiatrists often used Sodium Pentothal as part of narcotherapy, a drug treatment that is comparable to hypnosis. A psychiatrist would administer a very small dose of the drug (a dose too small to produce unconsciousness), causing the patient's heart rate to slow, relieving tension and anxiety and producing a state of complete relaxation. The idea behind narcotherapy was to make the patient more susceptible to suggestion than normal, allowing the psychiatrist to uncover repressed feelings or memories. Since hypnosis only works on about 20% of the population, the use of sedatives as a part of narcotherapy (including Sodium Pentothal, Sodium Amytal and Scopalamine, all classified as "hypnotics") was therefore considered a good alternative.
Sodium Pentothal received the nickname "Truth Serum" because its effects, guided by the psychiatrist in therapy sessions, caused the patient to become very communicative, verbalizing thoughts easily without inhibition. While under the effect of the drug, however, the patient may lose his inhibitions, but he does not lose self-control (just as in hypnosis: a person can't be hypnotized into doing something he doesn't want to do, or is unnatural to him, like robbing a bank). For that reason, a patient will not tell the truth if he chooses not to. It's not like those scenes from old TV shows, where the guy gets injected with Sodium Pentothal and, after an enormous internal struggle, is forced to speak the truth; Sodium Pentothal as a way of determining the truth depends entirely on the willingness of the patient.

(from http://www.scienceweb.org/tv/highincident.html)