Victim of drug tests did not give up "25,000 francs is not much for a botched life"

3,000 people were abused by psychiatrist Roland Kuhn for his drug tests between 1946 and 1980. The iron will of ex-patient Walter Emmisberger now brings some relief.

The psychiatrist Roland Kuhn from Münsterlingen tested pharmaceutical substances on 3,000 people. As the newspaper "Blick" writes, the victims are now to receive their compensation - and all because of one man.

Walter Emmisberger (68) has helped many victims of official arbitrariness to a certain satisfaction through a fight lasting more than ten years. The canton of Thurgau is paying CHF 25,000 to the victims of drug testing at the Münsterlingen psychiatric clinic.

Emmisberger lives in Fehraltorf ZH and suffers from recurring panic attacks. He used to be unable to leave his apartment for days on end. He still wakes up in the middle of the night because of nightmares and wants to hide.

There are reasons for this. He has been hurt repeatedly throughout his life. As Blick writes: Children's homes, placed with various farmers where he had to work hard, and finally with pastors in Aadorf TG. But the worst, the very worst, happened at the Münsterlingen clinic in the town of the same name in the canton of Thurgau. Emmisberger was "made available", so to speak, to the doctor and clinic director Roland Kuhn (1912-2005) by the clergymen to test the effects of chemicals.

Tests on adults, children and adolescents

From 1946 to 1980, Kuhn tested over 67 different untested substances on around 3,000 unknowing patients at the Münsterlingen Psychiatric Clinic, partly out of his own interest and partly on behalf of various pharmaceutical companies.

Kuhn is also said to have had children and adolescents among his test subjects. In some cases, the psychiatrist is said to have administered absurdly high doses, as a look at the files reveals.

According to Blick, seven different drugs were tested on Emmisberger in the 1960s alone, over a period of two years.

Among the drugs tested was a never-published active substance (G22 150) from Ciba and the active substance G34 276, which was approved in 1972 as the antidepressant Maprotiline/Ludiomil. Testing of the substance G35 259 was stopped by Geigy in 1970. In addition, Tegretol and Luminaletten, both epilepsy drugs, were used, although it was noted in the files that Walter Emmisberger did not suffer from epilepsy. The antidepressants Anafranil, primarily for obsessive-compulsive disorders, and Tofranil, also for anxiety and panic disorders, were also tested.

There is a whole list of side effects of the various active substances. For example, people taking these drugs can suffer from cardiac arrhythmia, speech disorders, drowsiness, memory lapses and more. Emmisberger exhibits some of these side effects.

The persistent approach pays off

The 68-year-old repeatedly tried to obtain the files from the psychiatric department at the time. At first he was told that this was not possible. Emmisberger's persistence finally led to a lawyer being granted access to the files. After years of requests, an employee of the law firm found 45 boxes of patient files in the clinic's basement. These contained Emmisberger's history, among other things. The documents were examined and analyzed by historians in the "Münsterlingen Test Case" study.

The files show that Emmisberger had to work hard every day during his childhood, both with the pastors he lived with and on farms during vacations.

Instead of help, however, he was given unresearched medication in high doses. In 1968, for example, he had to take six tablets of ketotofranil, which had a strong sedative effect and made him vomit. When side effects such as motor problems occurred, another drug was simply administered without addressing the actual cause.

No consent from the patient

Emmisberger, like other patients, never gave his consent to the drug tests. As Kuhn, a doctor at the time, wrote in a letter to a medical historian in 1989: "We never asked patients for their consent." The test subjects were mostly particularly vulnerable members of society - including children from orphanages, young people in reform institutions and children who had been sent away.

Despite the resistance, Emmisberger fought for years against the Swiss authorities and succeeded in ensuring that the victims of the experiments received compensation. The canton of Thurgau paid 25,000 francs per person, while the former company Ciba, now Novartis, contributed four million francs. However, Emmisberger sees this as only a partial success: "25,000 francs is not much for a botched life, and many of those affected have already died." In addition, the pharmaceutical companies would have had to pay much more, as they continue to make high profits from the tested substances.

Although Emmisberger's name was not mentioned when the compensation was officially announced, his commitment remains unforgotten. It is thanks to his tireless efforts that the victims of Münsterlingen have not been forgotten.