"Truth" Serum?
Starting after World War II as a way of treating war neuroses, psychiatrists often used Sodium Pentothal as part of narcotherapy, a drug treatment that is comparable to hypnosis. A psychiatrist would administer a very small dose of the drug (a dose too small to produce unconsciousness), causing the patient's heart rate to slow, relieving tension and anxiety and producing a state of complete relaxation. The idea behind narcotherapy was to make the patient more susceptible to suggestion than normal, allowing the psychiatrist to uncover repressed feelings or memories. Since hypnosis only works on about 20% of the population, the use of sedatives as a part of narcotherapy (including Sodium Pentothal, Sodium Amytal and Scopalamine, all classified as "hypnotics") was therefore considered a good alternative.
Sodium Pentothal received the nickname "Truth Serum" because its effects, guided by the psychiatrist in therapy sessions, caused the patient to become very communicative, verbalizing thoughts easily without inhibition. While under the effect of the drug, however, the patient may lose his inhibitions, but he does not lose self-control (just as in hypnosis: a person can't be hypnotized into doing something he doesn't want to do, or is unnatural to him, like robbing a bank). For that reason, a patient will not tell the truth if he chooses not to. It's not like those scenes from old TV shows, where the guy gets injected with Sodium Pentothal and, after an enormous internal struggle, is forced to speak the truth; Sodium Pentothal as a way of determining the truth depends entirely on the willingness of the patient.
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SPV: just a little idiotic information on your namesake - sodium pentothal is not equivalent to getting the truth. As far as your egotistical evaluation of middling and/or scalping goes, I wish I could say it's insulting but it isn't. Any 'idiot' can do a lot of things, probably doing Fourier transformations and other complex jobs is not one of them, as well as straight gambling. However, an 'investor' who has otherwise almost no interest in spending the majority of his waking hours analyzing sports so he can grind out a 53-55% win rate can do quite well for himself (or herself of course) doing 'idiot's work'.
That was much more true a few years ago than today. However, if you gave me a choice between being a sports 'genius' who may or may not win during even a year (even good cappers have bad streaks), and an 'idiot' who was absolutely guaranteed to make nice money all year-round, then give me the dunce's cap and sit me in the corner.
I'm not in it to compare egos - I'm was/am in it for the money. I managed to eke out a Phi Beta Kappa in college, and idiot that I am I still chose middling.
Go figger.
p.s. it's spelled 'pentothal', not 'pentethol' - you must have misspelled it on purpose because someone else had that nickname, I'm assuming.
[This message was edited by Jazz on February 15, 2004 at 12:27 PM.]
[This message was edited by Jazz on February 15, 2004 at 12:28 PM.]
[This message was edited by Jazz on February 15, 2004 at 12:32 PM.]