Narcoanalysis

It has long been known that certain drugs which have a depressing effect upon central nervous system function, also produce a remarkable candor or freedom from inhibition in the subject, which causes him to give truthful answers to questions. The oldest of these drugs is alcohol. For centuries investigators have realized that one method of loosening the tongue and eliminating repressive influences in an uncommunicative subject is to ply him with liquor. This well-known effect of alcohol has given rise to the time-honored aphorism "in vino veritas"- in wine there is truth.1 With the advent of anesthesia about a century ago, it was observed that during the induction period and particularly during the recovery, interval, patients were prone to make extremely naive remarks about personal matters, which, in their normal state, would never have been revealed. Probably the earliest direct attempt to utilize this phenomenon in criminal interrogation stemmed from observations of...