Robert Galbraith Heath

Heath was born on May 9, 1915, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He was encouraged by his father, who was a general medical practitioner, to enter the medical field as well. He received medical and undergraduate education from the University of Pittsburgh, where he graduated in 1938. He became determined to find his career in neurology after his father died. He then trained in neurology at the Neurological Institute of New York, and became a fellow at Pennsylvania Hospital. During World War II, he was drafted into the U.S. Navy to work as a psychiatrist.{{Cite journal |last1=J. |first1=Chrastina |last2=Č. |first2=Šilar |last3=T. |first3=Zeman |date=May 2020 |title=Robert Galbraith Heath (1915-1999) as a controversial personality |url=http://www.cspsychiatr.cz/detail.php?stat=1319 |journal=Ceská a Slovenská Psychiatrie |volume=116 |issue=2 |pages=80–84}} After returning from the war, he studied at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, at Columbia University. Heath married and had five children. He died on September 21, 1999, in St. Petersburg, Florida, at the age of 84.

Heath began electrical brain stimulation experiments on schizophrenia patients in 1950.{{Cite journal |last=Baumeister |first=Alan |date=2011-04-08 |title=The Search for an Endogenous Schizogen: The Strange Case of Taraxein |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/0964704X.2010.487427 |journal=Journal of the History of the Neurosciences |volume=20 |issue=2 |pages=106–122 |doi=10.1080/0964704X.2010.487427 |issn=0964-704X |pmid=21480035|s2cid=29384273 }} In 1954, Heath published a monograph called "Studies in Schizophrenia" detailing his deep brain stimulation experiments on 25 schizophrenic patients.{{Cite journal |last1=Mahoney |first1=Dominic E. |last2=Green |first2=Alexander L. |date=2020-05-01 |title=Psychosurgery: History of the Neurosurgical Management of Psychiatric Disorders |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1878875020302308 |journal=World Neurosurgery |language=en |volume=137 |pages=327–334 |doi=10.1016/j.wneu.2020.01.212 |pmid=32032787 |s2cid=213300884 |issn=1878-8750}} The study's methodology was met with much criticism at the time. Some of the patients experienced seizures or fatal brain abscess. In 1956, he published findings claiming the ability to induce symptoms of schizophrenia by injecting the blood of schizophrenia patients into the bodies of healthy patients. In particular, he claimed to have isolated a protein (taraxein) that could induce this effect. His findings produced widespread attention, both within the scientific community and the general public. The scientific community tended towards skepticism of his claims, and attempts to replicate his findings ensued. However, these attempts to confirm his findings mostly failed. Psychiatry textbooks in the 1960s lent some credence to his claims, though this ceased to be the case by the 1970s and 1980s. Heath continued to defend his findings and theory of schizophrenia until at least 1996.

Heath was experimenting in 1953 on inducing paroxysms through brain stimulation.{{cite journal|last1=Heath|first1=R. G.|last2=Peacock|first2=S. M. Jr.|last3=Miller|first3=W. Jr.|title=Induced paroxysmal electrical activity in man recorded simultaneously through subcortical and scalp electrodes.|journal=Transactions of the American Neurological Association|year=1953|volume=3|issue=78th Meeting|pages=247–50|pmid=13179226}} During the course of his experiments in deep brain stimulation, Heath experimented with DBS as a means of facilitating arousal, claiming to have converted a homosexual patient to heterosexuality, labeled in his 1972 paper as Patient B-19. While the electrodes were attached they temporarily facilitated arousal to a female prostitute, but they did not change the patient’s long term sexual interests. At the time, homosexuality was considered a psychiatric disorder under the DSM-II.{{Cite journal |last=Fecteau |first=Shirley |date=2022-01-20 |title=Influencing Human Behavior with Noninvasive Brain Stimulation: Direct Human Brain Manipulation Revisited |journal=The Neuroscientist |volume=29 |issue=3 |language=en |pages=317–331 |doi=10.1177/10738584211067744 |pmid=35057668 |s2cid=246079225 |issn=1073-8584|pmc=10159214 }}

The patient, who had been arrested for marijuana possession, was implanted with electrodes into the septal region (associated with feelings of pleasure), and many other parts of his brain. The septal electrodes were then stimulated while he was shown heterosexual pornographic material. The patient was later encouraged to have intercourse with a sex worker recruited for the study. However, while the electrodes produced arousal temporarily, they did not change the patient’s sexual attraction or nature.

This research would be deemed unethical today for a variety of reasons. The patient was recruited for the study while under legal duress, and further implications for the patient's well-being, including indications that electrode stimulation was addictive, were not considered.{{cite journal |last1=Heath |first1=R |year=1972 |title=Pleasure and Brain Activity in Man: Deep and Surface Electroencephalograms During Orgasm |url=http://www.violence.de/heath/jnmd/1972paper.pdf |journal=The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease |volume=154 |issue=1 |pages=3–18 |doi=10.1097/00005053-197201000-00002 |pmid=5007439 |id=Wikidata: Q34226342 |s2cid=136706}} In 1973, his ethical conduct during these studies was questioned by a subcommittee of the U.S. Senate.{{bsn|date=June 2023}} Heath's experiment was also criticized by Fred Mettler, who was previously his mentor.

One of Heath's colleagues, John Goethe, disputes the framing of the use of DBS in this case. According to Goethe, "At least at the time I knew [B-19], it was less about whether he was homosexual or heterosexual. He was sort of asexual. He just wasn’t that interested". Goethe argues B-19 approached Heath for help with his sexuality, rather than having it imposed on him in exchange for leniency over drugs charges, which was suggested by Bill Rushton.

Heath conducted a study on two rhesus macaques trained to smoke "the equivalent of one marijuana cigarette a day, five days a week for six months" and concluded that cannabis causes permanent changes in the brain. Nonetheless, he supported cannabis decriminalization.{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1978/01/13/archives/marijuana-tied-to-brain-change-in-monkey-tests.html |title=Marijuana Tied To Brain Change In Monkey Tests |work=The New York Times |date=January 13, 1978 |first=Boyce |last=Rensberger |accessdate=2019-11-02}} He later conducted a National Institutes of Health-funded study on 13 rhesus monkeys, with one rotating group representing "heavy smokers" whose cannabis dosage was believed to be comparable to three marijuana cigarettes smoked daily, a "moderate" group that was given the equivalent of one joint a day, and a third group that puffed inactive cannabis. He concluded, "Alcohol is a simple drug with a temporary effect. Marijuana is complex with a persisting effect."{{cite news |last1=Chandler |first1=David |title=Pot Is Safe, Right: Wrong, Says a Doctor: It Can Cause Brain Damage |url=https://people.com/archive/pot-is-safe-right-wrong-says-a-doctor-it-can-cause-brain-damage-vol-2-no-24/ |accessdate=June 9, 2020 |work=People |date=December 9, 1974 |language=EN}} According to the BBC, "His findings of permanent brain damage have been dismissed by similar, independently conducted studies. But other scientists have argued these methods of animal research are inconclusive."{{cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/2/newsid_2540000/2540141.stm |title=BBC ON THIS DAY | 2 | 1974: Cannabis 'causes brain damage' |work=BBC News |date=October 2, 1993 |accessdate=2019-11-02}} According to NORML, Heath's "work was never replicated and has since been discredited by a pair of better controlled, much larger monkey studies, one by Dr. William Slikker of the National Center for Toxicological Research and the other by Charles Rebert and Gordon Pryor of SRI International."{{cite magazine |url=https://www.mit.edu/~thistle/v13/2/myths.html |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20111003204823/https://www.mit.edu/~thistle/v13/2/myths.html |archivedate=2011-10-03 |title=Myths About Marijuana |magazine=The Thistle |publisher=MIT |volume=13 |number=2 |date=September–October 2000 |accessdate=2019-11-02}}

• "Cerebellar stimulation in treating intractable behavior disorders" Curr Psychiatr Ther. 1981;20:329-36{{cite journal |last1=Heath |first1=RG |last2=Rouchell |first2=AM |last3=Goethe |first3=JW |year=1981 |title=Cerebellar stimulation in treating intractable behavior disorders |journal=Curr Psychiatr Ther |volume=20 |pages=329–36 |pmid=7326976 |s2cid=27000585 }}
• "The cerebellar pacemaker for intractable behavioral disorders and epilepsy: follow-up report." Biol Psychiatry. 1980 Apr;15(2):243-56.
• "A surgical technique for chronic electrode implantation in humans. Confin Neurol. 1962;22:223-7."{{cite journal |last1=Llewellyn |first1=RC |last2=Heath |first2=RG |year=1962 |title=A surgical technique for chronic electrode implantation in humans |url=https://www.karger.com/Article/Abstract/104364 |journal=Confin Neurol |volume=22 |issue=3–5 |pages=223–7 |doi=10.1159/000104364 |pmid=13931099}}
• "Intracranial self-stimulation in man." Science. 1963 Apr 26;140(3565):394-6.{{cite journal |last1=Bishop |first1=MP |last2=Elder |first2=ST |last3=Heath |first3=RG |year=1963 |title=Intracranial self-stimulation in man |url=https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.140.3565.394 |journal=Science |volume=140 |issue=3565 |pages=394–6 |bibcode=1963Sci...140..394B |doi=10.1126/science.140.3565.394 |pmid=13971228 |s2cid=26553772}}

• José Manuel Rodriguez Delgado
• James Olds
• Wilder Penfield
• Unethical human experimentation in the United States

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• {{cite journal | title = Septal stimulation for the initiation of heterosexual behavior in a homosexual male. | doi = 10.1016/0005-7916(72)90029-8 | volume=3 | journal=Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry | pages=23–30 | year=1972 | last1 = Moan | first1 = Charles E.}}
• [http://www.violence.de/heath/jnmd/1972paper.pdf "Pleasure and Brain activity in Man: deep and surface electroencephalograms during orgasm. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease. Volume 154 Number 1]
• [https://arstechnica.com/science/2016/07/the-1970s-gay-cure-experiments-written-out-of-scientific-history/ "The 1970s "gay-cure" experiments written out of scientific history"]

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Category:1915 births

Category:1999 deaths

Category:20th-century American physicians

Category:American psychiatrists

Category:Conversion therapy practitioners

Category:Mind control theorists

Category:Tulane University faculty

Category:Physicians from Louisiana