"Sodium thiopental, better known as
Sodium Pentothal (a trademark
of Abbott Laboratories,
thiopental, thiopentone sodium,
orb trapanalb, is a rapid-onset short-acting barbiturate general anaesthetic. It is an intravenous ultra-short-acting barbiturate. Sodium thiopental is a depressant and is sometimes used during interrogations - not to cause pain (in fact, it may have just the opposite effect, but to weaken the resolve of the subject and make him or her more compliant to pressure.
Thiopental is still used in some places as a truth serum. The barbiturates as a class decrease higher cortical brain functioning. Psychiatrists hypothesize that because lying is more
complex than telling the truth, suppression of the higher cortical functions may lead to the uncovering of the "truth. However, the reliability of confessions made under thio- pental is dubious the drug tends to make subjects chatty and cooperative with interrogators, but a practiced liar or someone who has a false story firmly established would still be quite able to lie while under the influence of the drug" -- Reference Wikipedia.org back to 239)
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