Evaluation of the prison inmate as a subject in drug assessment

Abstract

The reasons for exclusion of prisoners from research studies on drugs were based mostly on a relatively limited group of laboratory parameters which could have been detected using a simple battery of screening tests. The answers to a medical history form added little to the evaluation of either the prisoner or student groups, were probably very unreliable, and could be just as well confined to a few selected questions regarding drug history as a matter of record. Students gave appropriate responses to a mood scale measurement test while prisoners characteristically did not comply. Because of a combination of various institutional and sociological factors, prisoners probably represent a special subgroup of research volunteers whose health status may not be representative of the total “healthy” population. They are unlikely to give accurate or reliable responses in testing situations which rely upon reporting of the subjective effects of drugs with regard to tolerance or pharmacologic effect. Studies of investigational drugs where the likelihood of potential risk is significant should be avoided in such populations unless compliance has been assessed adequately.