On trial

<p>The heroic story of the invention of antidepressants is a key part of the psychopharmaceutical turn.<i> On Trial</i> revolves around one of its pioneers psychiatrist Roland Kuhn who practiced in Münsterlingen a state-run psychiatric hospital in Switzerland. Kuhn became famous for the 'discovery' of the first antidepressant Tofranil and more recently notorious for his numerous trials on often unsuspecting patients.<br><br>Largely based on the extensive and previously inaccessible sources of Kuhn's private archive the book delves into the early days of industry-sponsored clinical research in psychiatry. It examines how the clinic patients doctors nursing staff corporations and authorities interacted in the trials. <br><br>Conducted from the 1940s to 1980s the Münsterlingen drug trials are historicised and situated in the period's evolving landscape of experimentation.</p>