system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: How does truth serum work?
gpt
Well, there are a bunch of things that are known as "truth serum."  Sodium Pentathol and Amobarbital are probably the most widely used ones, but there are many others.

The thing about truth serums, Timmy, is that they're not like what you see on TV.  Truth serums don't actually "make" you tell the truth.  Some cause what's called "dissassociation," which means your brain can't tell if the question you just got asked is coming from another person, or from inside your own brain (weird, huhn?)  What they DO do, however, is make you talk a lot more than normal, so you're more likely to contradict yourself or accidentally tell the truth.

It should also be said that the US Supeme Court ruled that use of chemicals to extact a confession is inadmissable in court, and that it's banned from use in interrogation by international law.  However, it is used in psychiatric treatments, specifically in people who are psychotic, manic, or in a catatonic trance.