A truth drug or truth serum is a psychoactive medication used to obtain information from subjects who are unable or unwilling to provide it otherwise. The unethical use of truth drugs is classified as a form of torture according to international law.[1] However, they are properly and productively used in the evaluation of psychotic patients in the practice of psychiatry.[2] That application was first documented by Dr. William Bleckwenn in 1930,[3] and it still has selected uses today. In the latter context, the controlled administration of intravenous hypnotic medications is called "narcosynthesis" or "narcoanalysis." It may be used to procure diagnostically—or therapeutically—vital information, and to provide patients with a functional respite from catatonia or mania.[4][5]
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Sedatives or hypnotics that alter higher cognitive function include ethanol, scopolamine, 3-quinuclidinyl benzilate, temazepam, and various barbiturates including sodium thiopental (commonly known as sodium pentothal) and sodium amytal (amobarbital) (see figure at right).[6]
According to prevailing medical thought, information obtained under the influence of intravenously-administered sodium amytal can be unreliable; subjects may mix fact and fantasy in that context.[7] Skeptics imply that much of the claimed effect of the drug relies on the belief of the subject that he or she cannot tell a lie while under its influence.[8][9] Some observers also feel that amobarbital does not increase truth-telling, but merely increases talking; hence, both truth and fabrication are more likely to be revealed in that construct.[10]
India's Central Bureau of Investigation has used intravenous barbiturates for interrogation.[11] One such case in which the CBI has used these techniques is the Noida double murder case.[12] For many criminal cases, the use of these methods may violate the right against self incrimination.[13] On May 5, 2010 the Supreme Court of India held that narco, polygraph and brain mapping tests violate article 20(3) of the Constitution.[14]
A defector from the biological weapons department 12 of the KGB "illegals" (S) directorate (presently a part of Russian SVR service) claimed that a truth drug codenamed SP-117 was highly effective and has been widely used. According to him, "The 'remedy which loosens the tongue' has no taste, no smell, no colour, and no immediate side effects. And, most important, a person has no recollection of having the 'heart-to-heart talk'" and felt afterwards as if they suddenly fell asleep. Officers of the S directorate used the drug primarily to check the trustworthiness of their own illegal agents who operated overseas, including even heroes of the service, such as Vitaly Yurchenko.[15] According to Alexander Litvinenko, Russian presidential candidate Ivan Rybkin was drugged with the same substance by FSB agents during his alleged kidnapping.[16]
Truth drugs have been used by the Central Intelligence Agency as seen in the U.S. Army and CIA interrogation manuals declassified by the Pentagon in 1996.
In 1963 the US Supreme Court ruled confessions produced as a result of ingestion of truth serum was "unconstitutionally coerced", and therefore inadmissible.