Self-experimentation in medicine
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'''Self-experimentation''' refers to the very special case of single-subject scientific experimentation in which the experimenter conducts the experiment on her- or himself. Usually this means that the designer, operator, subject, analyst, and user or reporter of the experiment are all the same. [[Self-experimentation]] has a long and well-documented history in [[medicine]] which continues to the present. Some of these experiments have been very valuable and shed new and often unexpected insights into different areas of medicine.
==Notable examples of medical self-experimentation==
===ABO blood group system===
Doctor [[Karl Landsteiner]]'s discovery of the [[ABO blood group system]] in 1900 was based on an analysis of blood samples from six members of his laboratory staff, including himself.
===Cardiac catheterization===
Clinical application of [[cardiac catheterization]] begins with [[Werner Forssmann]] in the 1930s, who inserted a catheter into the [[brachial vein]] of his own forearm, guided it fluoroscopically into his right atrium, and took an [[X-ray]] picture of it.<ref>{{cite journal | author = Fontenot C, O'Leary J | title = Dr. Werner Forssman's self-experimentation. | journal = Am Surg | volume = 62 | issue = 6 | pages = 514–5 | year = 1996 | pmid = 8651541}}</ref> Forssmann won the [[Nobel Prize]] for this achievement.
===Thrombocytopenia===
[[William J. Harrington]] was a doctor who in 1949 performed an exchange blood transfusion between him and a thrombocytopenic patient, discovering the immune basis of [[idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura]] and providing evidence for the existence of [[autoimmunity]].
===''Helicobacter pylori''===
In 1984 a Western Australian scientist, Dr [[Barry Marshall]], discovered of the link between ''[[Helicobacter pylori]]'' and [[gastritis]]. This was based on a series of self experiments that involved [[gastroscopy]] and [[biopsy]], ingestion of ''H. pylori'', regastroscopy and biopsy and subsequent treatment with [[tinidazole]].
===Cholera===
[[Max von Pettenkofer]] drank [[cholera]] bacteria.
===Effect of forces on the body===
[[John Paul Stapp]] sat in a rocket sled at almost the speed of sound, and then made an abrupt stop.
===Psychoactive drugs===
Psychopharmacologists [[Alexander Shulgin|Alexander and Ann Shulgin]] synthesized and experimented with a wide array of new phenethylamine and tryptamine drugs, discovering a range of previously unknown psychoactive drug effects.
===Yellow fever===
In [[Cuba]], U.S. Army doctors from [[Walter Reed]]'s research team infected themselves with [[yellow fever]] including [[James Carroll (scientist)|
James Carroll]], [[Aristides Agramonte]], and, most notably, [[Jesse William Lazear|Jesse Lazear]], who died from yellow fever complications in 1900. These efforts ultimately resulted in proof of the [[mosquito]]-borne nature of yellow fever transmission and saved countless lives.
===Alcohol===
[[Erik Jacobsen]] demonstrated the effect of [[antabuse]] and [[alcohol]] on himself.
===Heavy water===
[[Klaus Hansen]] drank [[heavy water]].
===Neural implant===
[[Kevin Warwick]] had an array of 100 electrodes fired into the [[median nerve]] fibres of his left arm. With this in place, over a 3 month period, he conducted a number of experiments linking his nervous system with the internet<ref>Warwick, K, Gasson, M, Hutt, B, Goodhew, I, Kyberd, P, Andrews, B, Teddy, P and Shad, A:“The Application of Implant Technology for Cybernetic Systems”, ''Archives of Neurology'', 60(10), pp1369-1373, 2003</ref>.
===Skin transplantation===
[[Ole Jakob Malm]] transplanted foreign tissue onto his own skin in order to discern among different tissue types.
===Snakebite===
Tim Friede created his own vaccine against snakebite using pure venom injections from all four species of mambas, and four cobra species to achieve high immunity. He also survived IgE shock six times with mamba injections. Others have also injected venom to create immunity to snake venom; Bill Haast, Harold Mierkey, Ray Hunter, Joel La Rocque, Herschel Flowers, Martin Crimmins, and Charles Tanner.<ref>http://sethroberts.net/self-experiment/2004-01%20Tim%20Friede%20abstract.PDF</ref>
===Weight balance===
[[Santorio Santorio]] spent a large portion of 30 years living on a platform meticulously measuring his daily weight combined with that of his intake and [[excretion]] in an effort to test [[Galen|Galen's]] theory that the respiration occurs through the skin as ''perspiratio insensibilis'' ([[insensible]] [[perspiration]]). The result was the 1614 publication ''[[De Statica Medicina]]'' ("On Medical Measurements")<ref name=santorio>Eknoyan G. Santorio Sanctorius (1561-1636) - founding father of metabolic balance studies. ''Am J Nephrol''. 1999;19(2):226-33.</ref>.
===Bartonellosis===
[[Daniel Alcides Carrion]] infected himself from the pus in the purple lesion in a bart No. 1 subspecies ([[bartonellosis]]) patient in 1885. He died from the disease several weeks later.
==References==
<References />
'''''See also:'''''
* {{cite journal | author = Kerridge I | title = Altruism or reckless curiosity? A brief history of self experimentation in medicine. | journal = Intern Med J | volume = 33 | issue = 4 | pages = 203–7 | year = 2003 | pmid = 12680989 | doi = 10.1046/j.1445-5994.2003.00337.x}}
* {{cite journal | author = Gandevia SC | title = Self-experimentation, ethics and efficacy. | journal = Monash Bioeth Rev. | volume = 24 | issue = 2 | pages = 43–48 | year = 2005 | pmid = 16208882}}
* {{cite book
| last = Altman
| first = Lawrence K.
| year = 1998
| title = Who Goes First? : The Story of Self-Experimentation in Medicine
| publisher = University of California Press
| location =
| id = ISBN 0-520-21281-9
}}
[[Category:Scientific method]]
[[Category:Medical research]]