Trials with patients – In Aargau, drugs were tested in psychiatric patients – News



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  • After the incidents of drug testing on psychiatric patients in Thurgau, which became known in 2015, Aargau has come to terms with his story.
  • It turns out that similar tests were carried out with patients at the Königsfelden Psychiatric Clinic in Aargau.
  • In the 1950s to 1990s in particular, drugs that were not approved were tested in several hundred patients.
  • The canton of Aargau today expressed its regret for the injustice to those affected.

A year ago, Aargau commissioned the Institute for the History of Medicine at the University of Bern to investigate any drug attempts in the last century at the Königsfelden Psychiatric Clinic (now PDAG). The suspicion has been confirmed. Psychiatric patients were also abused as test subjects in Aargau. A sample of medical records between 1950 and 1990 shows that there were such attempts. The University of Bern has studied 830 files. The file situation was not good everywhere, it says here.

According to the study, 31 preparations that were not (yet) approved at the time of prescribing were tested. Psychotropic drugs often have side effects. Unlike the canton of Thurgau, the pharmaceutical industry did not go through fees. But the Aargau Clinic received not only the drugs but also the equipment for the clinic, the study shows.

clinic

Legend:

The Königsfelden Psychiatric Clinic conducted drug trials in the 1950s and 1960s.

SRF

These tests were mainly carried out at the Königsfelden Psychiatric Clinic. However, individual studies were also carried out in the Rüfenach child psychiatry or in the special case of the Schürmatt Foundation (child and adolescent psychiatric care in the canton of Zurich). The study authors assume that there are several hundred people affected in all institutions.

No systematic selection of patients

There is no evidence that certain groups of patients have been affected with particular frequency by drug trials in terms of age, social origin and admission status. It is true that those affected by well-being and medical coercive measures participated in experiments. However, they were not specifically selected for this.

Back then in the troubled and legal gray area

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  • As in other Swiss clinics, the drug trials in Königsfelden were carried out in a legal gray area.
  • The experiments were not regulated until the 1970s.
  • However, it should not be concluded from this that the experiments were not problematic from the point of view of the time, writes study author Urs Germann from the Bern Institute of Medical History.
  • The fact that the drugs that were not approved were tested in Königsfelden was not a secret, neither among the specialized public nor in administration and politics, as the study shows.
  • But the authorities did nothing.
  • Even if the Aargau supervised the cantonal clinic, it had a lot of autonomy, the study author writes.
  • Another reason for drug trials was the change in psychiatry: psychotropic drugs instead of “locking up” patients.

Before the 1980s, according to the study, there was no written evidence that patients were fully informed about clinical trials and had the opportunity to consent or refuse treatment.

The canton regrets that the victims have been wronged, those responsible told the media. Today there are numerous regulations when conducting clinical studies. There are legal requirements and approval of the Ethics Committee for Northwest and Central Switzerland is required. Medicines must also be authorized by the Swissmedic supervisory authority.

Was it also tested in youth homes?

As a follow-up project to current research, the University of Bern suggests that research should continue in Aargau. How was the dispensing of drugs in child and adolescent psychiatry? How was it in institutions such as youth homes? And were tests conducted at the Lenzburg Correctional Facility and other men’s homes around 1970?

Research other cantons

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After the incidents in Thurgau canton became known, several cantons reacted and, as in the Aargau example, addressed the past in their psychiatric clinics. Other cantons such as Basel-Stadt, Basel-Land, Lucerne and Zurich have commissioned the corresponding studies. The study at Aargau cost 38,000 francs.

It is still open if all this will be investigated. One could also imagine a study all over Switzerland, it is said in Aargau. In this case, the National Fund should pay. Cantonal studies could be financed by the Swisslos fund if necessary.

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