Discovering Addiction: The Science and Politics of Substance Abuse Research

by Nancy D. Campbell

Overview

Discovering Addiction brings the history of human and animal experimentation in addiction science into the present with a wealth of archival research and dozens of oral-history interviews with addiction researchers. Professor Campbell examines the birth of addiction science—-the National Academy of Sciences's project to find a pharmacological fix for narcotics addiction in the late 1930s—-and then explores the human and primate experimentation involved in the succeeding studies of the "opium problem," revealing how addiction science became "brain science" by the 1990s.

Psychoactive drugs have always had multiple personalities—-some cause social problems; others solve them—-and the study of these drugs involves similar contradictions. Discovering Addiction enriches discussions of bioethics by exploring controversial topics, including the federal prison research that took place in the 1970s—-a still unresolved debate that continues to divide the research community—-and the effect of new rules regarding informed consent and the calculus of risk and benefit. This fascinating volume is both an informative history and a thought-provoking guide that asks whether it is possible to differentiate between ethical and unethical research by looking closely at how science is made.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780472116102
Publisher:	University of Michigan Press
Publication date:	11/03/2007
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Nancy D. Campbell is Associate Professor of Science and Technology Studies at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the author of Using Women: Gender, Drug Policy, and Social Justice.

Table of Contents

A Note on Sources     xiii
A Note on Interviews     xvii
Introduction     1
Framing the "Opium Problem": Protoscientific Concepts of Addiction     12
Creatures of Habit: Feeding the "Junkie Monkeys" of Michigan     29
"A New Deal for the Drug Addict": Addiction Research Moves to Lexington, Kentucky     54
"The Man with the Syringe": Pain and Pleasure in the Experimental Situation     83
"The Tightrope between Coercion and Seduction": Characterizing the Ethos of Addiction Research at Lexington     113
"The Great Hue and Cry": Prison Reform and the Ethics of Human Subjects Research     143
"The Behavior Is Always Right": Behavioral Pharmacology Comes of Age     178
"The Hijacked Brain": Reimagining Addiction     200
Conclusion     222
Notes     239
Selected Bibliography     263
Index     287

Editorial Reviews

"Compelling and original, lively and engaging—-Discovering Addiction opens up new ways of thinking about drug policy as well as the historical discourses of addiction."

University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee Carol Stabile