Self-experimentation refers to single-subject research in which the experimenter conducts the experiment on themself.
Usually this means that a single person is the designer, operator, subject, analyst, and user or reporter of the experiment.
Also referred to as Personal science or N-of-1 research,[1] self-experimentation is an example of citizen science,[2] since it can also be led by patients or people interested in their own health and well-being, as both research subjects and self-experimenters.
Biology and medicine[edit]
Human scientific self-experimentation principally (though not necessarily) falls into the fields of medicine and psychology. Self-experimentation has a long and well-documented history in medicine which continues to the present day.[3]
For example, after failed attempts to infect piglets in 1984, Barry Marshall drank a petri dish of Helicobacter pylori from a patient, and soon developed gastritis, achlorhydria, stomach discomfort, nausea, vomiting, and halitosis.[4] The results were published in 1985 in the Medical Journal of Australia,[5] and is among the most cited articles from the journal.[6] He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2005.
Evaluations have been presented in the context of clinical trials and program evaluations.[7][8]
Psychology[edit]
In psychology, the best-known self-experiments are the memory studies of Hermann Ebbinghaus, which established many basic characteristics of human memory through tedious experiments involving nonsense syllables.[9]
Chemistry[edit]
Several popular and well-known sweeteners were discovered by deliberate or sometimes accidental tasting of reaction products. Saccharin was synthetized in 1879 in the in the chemistry labs of Ira Remsen at Johns Hopkins by a student scientist, Constantin Fahlberg, who noticed "curious sweet taste on his fingers while eating his dinner, [and] realized that it came from something he had spilled on his hand during the day". Fahlberg subsequently identified the active compound, ortho-benzoic sulfimide, and named it saccharin.[10][11] Cyclamate was discovered when a chemistry research student noticed a sweet taste on his cigarette that he had set down on his bench.[10] Acesulfame was discovered when a laboratory worker licked his finger.[10] Aspartame was also discovered accidentally when chemist James Schlatter tasted a substance, synthesized in search of a treatment for gastric ulcers, licked his fingers to pick up a paper.[10][12] Sucralose was discovered by a foreign student, mishearing instructions of his supervisor, Prof. L. Hough, to "test" the compounds as to "taste" them.[10]
Leo Sternbach, the inventor of Librium and Valium, tested chemicals that he made on himself, saying in an interview, "I tried everything. Many drugs. Once, in the sixties, I was sent home for two days. It was an extremely potent drug, not a Benzedrine. I slept for a long time. My wife was very worried."[13]
Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann first discovered the psychedelic properties of LSD five years after its creation, when he accidentally absorbed a small amount of the drug through his fingertips. Days later, he intentionally self-experimented with it.[14]
Chemist Alexander Shulgin synthesized tens of molecules in search of psychoactive materials, and evaluated them via careful self-experimentation together with his wife Ann Shulgin and a small research group of good friends.[15][16][17]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ Martijn De Groot; Mark Drangsholt; Fernando J Martin-Sanchez; Gary Wolf (2017). "Single subject (N-of-1) research design, data processing, and personal science". Methods of Information in Medicine. 56 (6): 416–418. doi:10.3414/ME17-03-0001. PMID 29582912. S2CID 4387788.
- ^ Nils B. Heyen (2020). "From self-tracking to self-expertise: The production of self-related knowledge by doing personal science". Public Understanding of Science. 29 (2): 124–138. doi:10.1177/0963662519888757. PMC 7323767. PMID 31778095. S2CID 208335554.
- ^ Who Goes First?: The Story of Self-Experimentation in Medicine by Lawrence Altman
- ^ Melissa Beattie-Moss (February 4, 2008). "Gut Instincts: A profile of Nobel laureate Barry Marshall". Penn State News.
- ^ "Medical Journal of Australia". Mja.com.au. Retrieved 2010-03-02.
- ^ Van Der Weyden, Martin B; Ruth M Armstrong; Ann T Gregory (2005). "The 2005 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine". Medical Journal of Australia. 183 (11/12): 612–614. PMID 16336147. Retrieved 2007-01-28.
- ^ Rebecca Ghani (12 April 2011). "Self experimenting doctors". BMJ. 342: d215. doi:10.1136/bmj.d2156. S2CID 80314766.
- ^ David E.K. Hunter, "Daniel and the Rhinoceros", Evaluation and Program Planning Volume 29, Issue 2, May 2006, Pages 180-185 (Program Capacity and Sustainability). [1]
- ^ Ebbinghaus, Hermann (1913). Über das Gedächtnis. Untersuchungen zur experimentellen Psychologie. NY Teachers College.
- ^ a b c d e Gratzer, Walter (28 November 2002). "5. Light on sweetness: the discovery of aspartame". Eurekas and Euphorias: The Oxford Book of Scientific Anecdotes. Oxford University Press. pp. 14–. ISBN 978-0-19-280403-7. Retrieved 1 August 2012.
- ^ "The Pursuit of Sweet". Science History Institute. Retrieved 2024-03-24.
- ^ ed. L. D. Stegink and L. J. Filer (1984). "J. M. Schlatter". Aspartame: Physiology and Biochemistry. New York: Marcel Dekker. ISBN 9780824772062.
{{cite book}}:|last=has generic name (help) - ^ "Little Helper", Nick Paumgarten, The New Yorker, June 16, 2003, pp. 71-72. [2]
- ^ Shroder, Tom (2014-09-09). "'Apparently Useless': The Accidental Discovery of LSD". The Atlantic. Retrieved 7 December 2016.
- ^ Shulgin, A T; Shulgin, L A; Jacob, P (1986-05-01). "A protocol for the evaluation of new psychoactive drugs in man". Methods and findings in experimental and clinical pharmacology. 8 (5): 313–320. ISSN 2013-0155. PMID 3724306.
- ^ Shulgin, Alexander; Shulgin, Ann (1990). PiHKAL: A Chemical Love Story. Berkeley: Transform Press. ISBN 9780963009609.
- ^ Shulgin, Alexander; Shulgin, Ann (1997). TiHKAL: The Continuation. Berkeley: Transform Press.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
- Hanley et al 2019, "Review of Scientific Self-Experimentation: Ethics History, Regulation, Scenarios, and Views Among Ethics Committees and Prominent Scientists"
