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The heroic story of the invention of antidepressants is a key part of the psychopharmaceutical turn. On Trial revolves around one of its pioneers, psychiatrist Roland Kuhn, who practiced in Münsterlingen, a state-run psychiatric hospital in Switzerland. Kuhn became famous for the ‘discovery’ of the first antidepressant, Tofranil, and more recently notorious for his numerous trials on often unsuspecting patients.
Largely based on the extensive and previously inaccessible sources of Kuhn’s private archive, the book delves into the early days of industry-sponsored clinical research in psychiatry. It examines how the clinic, patients, doctors, nursing staff, corporations, and authorities interacted in the trials.
Conducted from the 1940s to 1980s, the Münsterlingen drug trials are historicised and situated in the period’s evolving landscape of experimentation.
'Drawing on extraordinarily rich archival access—patient files, administrative records, company documents, and, crucially, the private papers of Vera and Roland Kuhn—the authors offer a dense reconstruction of how psychiatric drug testing evolved between the 1940s and 1980s. The result is a compelling account of shifting ethical and scientific norms: from descriptive case studies to double-blind trials; from an absence of patient information to mandatory informed-consent procedures.'
Benoit Majerus, Social History of Medicine
Marietta Meier is an Associate Professor of History at the University of Zurich
Magaly Tornay is a Postdoctoral researcher at the University of Bern
Mario König was an independent author and historian
Introduction
1. The 1940s: the ball gets rolling
2. The 1950s: testing frenzy with Geigy
3. Test patients
4. The 1960s: a flood of substances and new dimensions of testing
5. Substance logistics, information streams, and money flows
6. The 1970s: between doldrums and success
7. Fatal incidents
8. The 1980s: a long, restless finale
Conclusion
Chronology
List of test substances