Taking Valium before the polygraph

[Nick25]

Does taking valium beforethe polygraph test help. It is a anxiety medication that is said to help. Anyone try it.

[NSAreject]

Nick25,

  Speaking from NSA experience, they will ask you, if
you have taken any medication, or alcohol, then they
will ask you, under the poly, if you have been truthful,
or intend on lying.  I did hear of an NSA applicant that
drank in the parking lot, before the poly, and was
stupid enough, to admit it to the polygrapher.  Being
in the Intel community, and as a personal choice, I
couldn't do that, but you may not have anything to
lose - if you do, never admit to it...

[George W. Maschke]

Nick25,

I'm not aware of any scientific studies on the effectiveness of valium as a polygraph countermeasure. However, it seems plausible that a sedative might be helpful in passing a relevant/irrelevant polygraph "test" (the primary technique used by the NSA). According to New York Times columnist William Safire, former CIA director Bill Casey once told him that "using dodges like a sphincter-muscle trick and a Valium pill, he could defeat any polygraph operator."

However, it seems unlikely that a sedative alone would enable one to pass the more common "control question test," in which reactions to relevant versus "control" questions are compared.

For information on polygraph procedure and countermeasures, see Chapters 3 & 4 of The Lie Behind the Lie Detector:

http://antipolygraph.org/lie-behind-the-lie-detector.pdf

[Persil_White]

For CIA, you're likely to have bloodwork drawn in the morning before your polygraph, and urine sample for drug test after it, so if you medicate, you're likely to be found out.  If you deny using drugs in the polygraph exam, and they turn up in your body that day, you can kiss your chances of employment goodbye.  Much better to follow this site's advice regarding the poly than to drug yourself.

[AngryinNY]

I took both Klonipin (a relative of valium) and Inderal during my poly with the polygrapher's knowledge. They didn't care that I was taking them, and the results turned out inconclusive (as they had on previous tests without medication).

[ILGA_RITA]

I TOOK A MUSCLE RELAXANT CALLED ATIVAN. DID NOT THINK THAT THAT WOULD INTERFERE WITH THE "TRUTH TELLING ABILITY" OF THE POLYGRAPH AND WAS NOT QUESTIONED PRIOR TO MY TEST ABOUT ANYTHING LIKE THAT. I WAS TOLD THAT I FAILED MY POLYGRAPH MISERABLY, BUT ONCE I ACTUALY GOT A COPY OF MY RESULTS FROM CANADIAN GOVERNMENT, MY RESULTS HAD BEEN CHANGED FROM NO DI TO DI. SOME PAGES THEY EVEN FORGOT TO CHANGE! GO FIGURE WITH THIS STUPID THING. CAN'T LOOK AT THE RCMP THE SAME WAY AGAIN KNOWING HOW NAIVE THEY ARE ABOUT THIS THING.

[retcopper]

Ilga:

Excuse me but who is the naive one here?  The RCMP surely didnt tell you to take a relaxant, did they?  .

[chubby]

go to hell, dont try to come in and convince people that the lie detector is unbeatable because it is!!!

[Sergeant1107]

go to hell, dont try to come in and convince people that the lie detector is unbeatable because it is!!!

Surely you have better things to do than tell a poster to go to hell regarding a five-year-old post?

[jacks lack]

2c here, I have failed polygraphs where I was completely innocent, and passed 2 where I was the sole culprit.  For me it was all about the mental side of things and being able to disassociate myself with the process I was going through, almost like dishing out automatic responses while in a semi-meditative state.

If the question can be made to have no "meaning" to me to the point where either answer will work, I have my baseline.

Has a lot to do with the meaning you are putting behind saying "yes" and "no."