Fresh claims of drugs tested on psychiatric patients

A historian has claimed that around 1,000 patients at a Zurich psychiatric clinic were used to test medication from the 1950s to 1970s. It’s the latest in a chain of revelations about drug tests made on psychiatric patients in Switzerland. Katharina Brandenberger shared information obtained from archived medical records for her doctorate, with the Swiss Public Television, SRF, programme, Schweiz Aktuell. She claims that the research department of the University Psychiatric Clinic Burghölzli in Zurich carried out the testing on patients. In the 1970s alone, 44 different drugs were tested. If the patients refused to take tablets, they were injected. And drugs that had not yet been approved for use were also administered.   A number of local politicians in Zurich have asked the cantonal government to provide answers. The president of the Swiss Patients’ Agency, Erika Ziltener, told the TV programme, “This issue affects the whole country, it must be worked on at a ...