United States Public Health Service Hospital

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The Public Health Service Narcotic Hospital was an institution of the US hospital or prison system, previously known as the United States narcotic farm, later known as the Federal Medical Center, Lexington.

On January 19, 1929, the US Congress authorized the US Public Health Services with the so-called "Porter Bill" to establish two narcotic farms "for the confinement and treatment of persons addicted to the use of habit-forming narcotic drugs" (Public to build Law 70-672), one in the 2nd district in the west of Lexington (Kentucky) , the other in Fort Worth ( Texas ).

Construction began in Lexington in 1933 and the facility opened on May 25, 1935. It was a prison-like hospital or hospital-like prison with limited security measures, gates and barred windows on an area of ​​420 hectares, with farmland and a dairy, whereby the work there was seen as a form of therapy for the 1000 patients / inmates. In 1936 the name was changed to “US Public Health Service Hospital”, but the prison-like structure was retained. These were only abolished in the late 1960s when the building was modernized. With the increased availability of government and private drug treatment programs, the hospital was closed in February 1974 and part of the property was given to the local government as a recreational area on the condition that it was always open to the public. Today this Masterson Station Park covers an area of ​​over 264 hectares.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt wrote to the Lexington Trade Council on July 25, 1933: 'We have ever been ready to exert our best efforts to alleviate suffering and rectify wrongs. It is fitting the Federal government should dedicate this institution to the noble purpose of rescuing our fellow men from the abject slavery of the narcotic habit. In this institution the victims of the opium habit will be restored to usefulness' .

From the start, Lexington had a research department, the first head of which was Clifton K. Himmelsbach . From 1948 onwards, with the establishment of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), this was run separately as the Addiction Research Center in Lexington and eventually became the intramural research program of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, which was established in 1974 .

Research from Lexington included the characterization of acute and prolonged withdrawal syndrome and the identification of subtypes of the opioid receptor . Methadone was first used here for opioid withdrawal . In addition, were in search of a new opioid - analgesic without dependence potential controlled trials on patients, among other desomorphine performed. Himmelsbach used his withdrawal scale ( Himmelsbach Withdrawal Scale ), a questionnaire for evaluating withdrawal symptoms, which is still used today in a modified form. One of his collaborators was Marie Nyswander , who, with her husband Vincent P. Dole, used methadone as the first substitute drug for opioid addiction .

Lexington was also open to volunteer withdrawals. Of the 1,036 patient admissions from July 1, 1936 to June 30, 1937, a little less than 4% were volunteers, mostly farm workers who had become dependent on medical treatment with opioids and who returned to their families and work after withdrawal and so ( from the outset) corresponded exactly to the image of man that those responsible had in mind as a successful treatment for all inmates. It goes without saying that the best treatment successes were achieved in these patients, while the rest had a relapse rate of approx. 80%, although the published data showed methodological deficiencies and nonetheless strengthened the public image of the incurable addict.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Thomas R. Kosten and David A. Gorelick: "The Lexington Narcotic Farm" Am J Psychiatry 159: 1, January 2002
  2. ↑ Masterson Station Park ( Memento of the original from May 27, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.lexingtonky.gov
  3. ^ Nancy D Campbell: "Toward a critical neuroscience of 'addiction'" BioSocieties (2010) 5, 89-104. doi : 10.1057 / biosoc.2009.2
  4. ^ "Medicine: Morphine Substitutes"; TIME, Monday, Jun. 01, 1936
  5. ^ CJ Acker: "The early years of the PHS Narcotic Hospital at Lexington, Kentucky." Public Health Rep. 1997 May – Jun; 112 (3): 245-247. PMC 1382000 (free full text)

literature

  • Nancy D. Campbell, JP Olsen, Luke Walden: The Narcotic Farm: The Rise and Fall of America's First Prison for Drug Addicts , ISBN 978-0-8109-7286-5 .

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