The BBC reports today that the Dubai police are claiming that the Hamas leader allegedly assassinated by the Israeli secret service, Mossad, was killed using a drug called succinylcholine.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8541612.stm They correctly describe the drug as a muscle relaxant but incorrectly add that it was used to "sedate him" before he was suffocated. A sedative it is not. Succinylcholine is a curare-like neuromuscular blocking agent, and paralyzes muscles, including those controlling breathing. The subject dies directly by suffocation, no need for a pillow. Rather than causing sedation, the drug does not impair consciousness, and the victim suffocates while fully conscious. Nice. A similar but not identical paralyzing agent, turbocurarine, was used by DiCara and Miller (1968) in their notorious attempt to show that heart-rate could be operantly-conditioned. The drug was used to paralyze the rats, and so rule out the possibility that the conditioning was achieved by muscular movement. It was necessary to provide artificial respiration during the trials. Dworkin and Miller (1986) later reported that the positive results at first obtained in Miller's lab with this technique were not replicable. In browsing the literature, I see that DiCara (with Wilson, 1975) used succinylcholine in at least one study. Dworkin and Miller (1986) reported they used it as well as tubocurarine in their desperate attempt to find some way to replicate the earlier work. Wikipedia tells me that the main difference between succinylcholine and tubocurarine is that succinylcholine depolarizes the motor end-plate; tubocurarine does not. Succinylcholine also enters the literature as an agent used in misguided studies to treat alcoholism with aversion therapy. carried out at Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario in the 1960's (e.g. Madill et al, 1966). In what must have been one of the most terrifying experiments ever carried out under laboratory conditions, subjects were paralyzed with succinylcholine to the point of suffocation, while alcohol was applied to their lips. They thought they were going to die. But it didn't work to cure alcoholism. Apparently it does work to cure terrorists. Stephen Failure to replicate visceral learning in the acute curarized rat preparation. Dworkin, Barry R.; Miller, Neal E. Behavioral Neuroscience. Vol 100(3), Jun 1986, 299-314. Influence of neuromuscular blocking drugs on recovery of skeletal electromyographic activity in the rat. Wilson JR, DiCara LV.Psychophysiology. 1975 May;12(3):249-53 Psychosomatic Medicine 30:489-494 (1968) Instrumental Learning of Systolic Blood Pressure Responses by Curarized Rats: Dissociation of Cardiac and Vascular Changes Leo DiCara and Neal Miller Q J Stud Alcohol. 1966 Sep;27(3):483-509. Aversion treatment of alcoholics by succinylcholine-induced apneic paralysis. Madill MF, Campbell D, Laverty SG, Sanderson RE, Vandewater SL. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Stephen L. Black, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology, Emeritus Bishop's University e-mail: sblack at ubishops.ca 2600 College St. Sherbrooke QC J1M 1Z7 Canada ----------------------------------------------------------------------- --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=936 or send a blank email to leave-936-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
