Psychotropic Drugs in Socialism? Drug Regulation in the German Democratic Republic in the 1960s.

Psychotropic Drugs in Socialism? Drug Regulation in the German Democratic Republic in the 1960s. The peculiarities of drug regulation in the GDR are best described by a historical reconstruction of a concrete field of practice. The article analyses the regulation of psychotropic drugs by focussing on the centralised planning and control of pharmaceutical research and development in the 1960s. Its starting point is the observation that an introduction of certain psychotropic drugs like tranquilizers was initially controversial in the GDR. As a consequence, the key question is how an agreement over their medical and economic benefit was reached eventually. The article shows how in the course of the 1960s a discursive arrangement between the medical profession, pharmaceutical industry and the state apparatus emerged, which was supported by an increased political involvement of leading scientists and the directing staff of enterprises.