“Truth Serum” and “Recovered Memories” of Sexual Abuse: A Review of the Evidence

Abstract

This article discusses the Amytal interview, which is sometimes believed to be useful to indicate deception, to reveal concealed contents of the mind, or to compel disclosure of those contents. The medical literature is reviewed to determine if the procedure reliably yields information valuable in legal evaluations of adults claiming recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse. The review finds that no investigator who had performed Amytal interviews endorsed them as a method of recovering accurate memories; rather, the literature repeatedly comments on several characteristics of these examinations that make them useless for this purpose. It is concluded that the Amytal interview has no legitimate use in recovered-memory cases.