OCR Text |
Show 3 RQMCLE SLfrnmjsr lues&av, Aueust ib. Iy77 LMVfckMIY OF t) I AH VOLUME 6b, NO. 15 3 U studies with LSD not CIA related by STEPHANIE SCHOROW Chronicle Staff outside help, and the costs ran from $'-- to $100 rvr experiment. Results of the tests were published in The University conducted experiments with LSD on volunteers during the 1950s, but these tests were unrelated to a CIA project on mind control, according to persons conducting the research. The experiments, done through the Department of Psychiatry, were typical of thousands of LSD experiments made at the time, said Dr. Eugene Bliss, department chairman, who conducted some of the professional journals. Psychological Abstrac ts, an index of journals concerning, listed descriptions of three studies involving LSD conducted at the University. One, conducted by Bliss and Claik and published in 1959, concerned the effects of sleep deprivation and LSD. In the test, four volunteers stayed awake 48 hours and were given LSD. Seven other volunteers stayed awake 72 hours. According to the index, "sleep deprivation was also found to enhance the ego disruptive effects of LSD-25- .. .Prolonged wakefulness may be a critical factor in the precipitation of a few schizophrenic illnesses." A 1957 experiment conducted by Bliss and Claik. studied the effectiveness of various drugs as possible blocking agents Mescaline, atropine, against LSD-25- . amobarbital and chlorpromozine were also involved. Results: "No one of the drugs used significantly influenced the somatic and psychological disturbances induced by large or small doses of LSD-25.- " A third study, published in 1956. studied the effect of cortisone on sensitivity to LSD. Clark said many 1950s LSD tests may have paralleled tests by the U.S. Army on research. "I simply don't know of any connection" between the CIA and these University tests, said Dr. Lincoln Clark, professor of psvchiatry, who conducted three studies with LSD from 1956 to 1959. The tests were intended to research the effects of LSD on mental illness, Clark said, and a small number of paid volunteers were involved. Small amounts of IJD, called doses, were given to volunteers, any of whom were medical students. At the time, LSD "looked like an interesting, promising drug," Bliss said. "We thought it would help in treating and understanding mental illness." Bliss said the tests were funded through the Department of Psychiatry without V2 r ft v t Tr!;" u chemical warfare agents. He said that some researchers at the time thought LSD could be a "more humane" incapacitating agent then nerve gas. One experiment conducted by Clark appeared to concern an issue involved with CIA research that of using drugs to elicit information from unwilling juititipants. This experiment did not utilize LSD, but did use other hallucinogenic drugs. In the experiment 20 paid volunteers were instructed to withhold certain information from interviewers. The volunteers were given a drug dosage and then interviewed to see if they could continue to conceal the information. Drugs used included mescaline sulfate, sodium amobaibital, ethvl alcohol and morphine. "Results showed that with the exception of two 'slips of the tongue,' (the volunteers) showed an impressie degree of ego integrity and vigilantly guarded the supressed information," according to Psychological Abstracts. I lie CIA instituted its mind control program pit v in fear that brainwashing techniques used by the North Koreans on American vldiers would U duplicated elsewhere. The "cxjMiitnental secret" used in the University study "was devised to bear resemblance to those which might be 1 1 r i involved in military intelligence." Bliss said research on this "supression" of information was useful in understanding the process by which patients overcome inhibitions to talk freely to a psychiatrist about personal problems. Money for the project came from detrimental funds, he said. Questions about links between the University and the CIA's mind control project, MK Ultra, were first raised when an Army fact shut was published that indicated the University was one of several institutions conducting secret research with LSD for the Army. NBC has reported that many CIA c ontrac is were f unded by the CIA and administered by the Army. The CIA has recently announced it would notify the 41 universities engaged sometimes unwittingly in mind control research. The University has not been so notified, said Elizabeth Haglund, director oi public relations. One discrepancy still exists in the published rejxn ts about USD researc h. Last Friday, the Salt Lake Tribune quoted an unidentified volunteer who said he was paid $10 in 1953 to take a dose of "What I believe was I,SD" and record its effect. Yet Clark's LSD experiments did not Ixgin until 1956. Clark was not hired at the University until 1955. Until the '60s, was just another drug LSD In the 1950s, before the days of Timothy Leary and the Summer of Love, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) was just another interesting drug with some interesting effects. It was discovered by accident in 1913 by Swiss chemist Dr. Albert Hofmann, who was experimenting with an ergot compound and somehow absorbed some of the mixture into his system. Soon he experienced some of the hallucinations and other symptoms now associated with LSD. Further LSD experiments followed. Because volunteers who took LSD in experiments sometimes displayed many of the symptoms of schizophrenia, psychologists hoped that it could aid in the understanding of this mental disease. Universities all over the country began testing the effect of the then-legLSD on schizophrenics and psychotics. A 1959 test gave LSD to 10 chronic schizophrenics and 10 normal persons, tested their reaction time and motor functions, and compared the results. Other experiments were conducted testing volunteers' memory, depth and time perception, and reflex action under the influence of LSD. LSD was given to epileptics to see if attacks were provoked (thus establishing what part of the brain LSD affected) and to former morphine addicts to study drug tolerance. Very little concrete evidence about mental illness was discovered, however. The LSD tests at the University were halted for lack of success in understanding and treating mental illness, said Dr. Lincoln Clark, a participant in the research. Though much attention has been drawn to the use of human volunteers in LSD research, who sometimes were given the drug by the CIA without their knowledge or consent, much of the LSD research was done on animals. Researchers gave LSD to Siamese Fighting Fish to test their aggression while drugged, to salamanders to watch the result on their body functions and on cats to record their brain responses. professor Dr. Sherman Dickman Biochemistry LSD in 1957 in connection with some with experimented he was doing with chemicals belonging to the studies class as LSD. Compounds in this chemical same chemical class produce a bright purple dye, something useful in determining the chemicals contained in a compound. So he wrote to a major drug company and received a batch of LSD free. "It was just another chemical out of the 1 0,000 they had in the plant," he said. However, Dickman never completed the research. It came as a great surprise to him and others involved with LSD research when LSD became a widely used and extremely controversial drug in the 1960s. al I 4 Dorm closure a cultural loss hollow clang will echo through the halls of the International House (IH) as the building's doors are closed for the last time on September 1. This residential living A center has become a sentimental place and will be missed by those persons who lived and shared experiences from their own culture and learned the mores of other lands. A long-tim- e resident presently living in the International House is Vern Winterton. He said he will miss the international atmosphere the most. He has learned about other cultures from the many conversations he said he has had with the foreign students living there. When the closes, dormitory Winterton will be moving to an apartment. He said he pays $135 a month rent for his room at the International House and will be paying $80 a month rent for his new apartment but he said he would rather pay the extra money for the experience of living at International House. Ray Saunders, who has lived in th facility for three and a half years, said the studying atmosphere is better than in other places where he has lived. "A person can really get serious baout his homework and get it done in the serenity of the off-camp- living quarters. I'll miss the international parties and the great dishes the foreign students fixed," Saunders said. He plans to move to Van Cott Hall when IH closes in the fall. The decision to close the International House came after an extensive study by an architectural off-camp- consulting firm revealed the facility was not meeting current building standards for life, safety, fire and the handicapped. Remodeling would have cost an estimated $250,000 to be absorbed by students in the rental rate structure since the University resident halls are g. The facility can accom- modate 46 students. A recent review of occupancy statistics shows a majority of international students reside in other campus resident halls. Foreign students seldom request rooms at the International House, said James Schuster, assistant director of residential living. Only three foreign students signed up for rooms in the International House fall quarter. Those students have been contacted by registered mail to inform them of the closing of the dormitory. Comparable living accommodations have been offered to all those living in the facility. The three-stor- y brick structure was originally built as a hospital for Fort Douglas in the early 1900s. In 1948 it became known as Central Hall and was used by the University as a men's dormitory. "The International House became quite a sentimental place for a lot of students," said Schuster. "They joked about living in an operating room with green tile floors and marble washroom." Schuster says there are no immediate plans for the International House after the facility closes. |