Research Query: LSD Testing in the 1950s

A researcher hopes to contact volunteer participants in “truth sera” experiments.

In the first half of the 1950s, Henry Beecher of Harvard Medical School oversaw a series of experiments, sponsored by the U.S. Army Research Council, that were designed to test “truth sera” using various drugs, including LSD. The drugs were tested on volunteers, some of them Harvard students. Now Beecher professor of anesthesia James Rathmell is preparing an historical article on Beecher and his research. If you—or anyone you know—volunteered for Beecher’s experiments, Rathmell would like to hear from you: rathmell.james@mgh.harvard.edu. Confidentiality will be assured for those who wish it.

Related topics

You might also like

One of Harvard’s Oldest Structures Is Hiding Behind a Beer Garden

A crumbling wall in Harvard Square holds centuries of the city’s story, if you know how to read it.

Yesterday’s News

How a book on fighting the “Devill World” survived Harvard’s historic fire.

Yesterday’s News

A co-ed experiment that changed dorm life forever

Most popular

The True Cost of Grade Inflation at Harvard

How an abundance of A’s created “the most stressed-out world of all.”

Jerome Powell Talks Risk, Resilience, and AI at Harvard

The Fed Chairman laid out the U.S. central bank’s approach to global conflict and an unpredictable future.

What Trump Means for John Roberts’s Legacy

Executive power is on the docket at the Supreme Court.

Explore More From Current Issue

Older man in a green sweater holds a postcard in a warmly decorated office.

How a Harvard Hockey Legend Became a Needlepoint Artist

Joe Bertagna’s retirement project recreates figures from Boston sports history.

Four Labrador puppies—two black and two yellow—sitting in green grass.

What Do Puppies Know?

Canine capabilities emerge early and continue into adulthood.

Firefighters battling flames at a red building, surrounded by smoke and onlookers.

Yesterday’s News

How a book on fighting the “Devill World” survived Harvard’s historic fire.