Conditioning Drugs

Anyone else wonder what the heck these are made from? All we're ever told is that the cyborgs rely on them a lot... And this (optionally; dependent on the writer) plays a role in Cyborgs of No Nation.

I've posted on this before, I just don't remember where I did it.  However I'm your guy as I am into this kinda stuff.  Science teacher and all that.  Maybe I'll make it an anime science post.

Anyway.. a lot of this will depend on how you see the girls.
Anti rejection drugs depending on the nature of the implants
various psychotropics (neuro active drugs)
They are undoubtedly addictive and part of the degeneration is most likely due to overdosing on the drugs.
Now there are some new drugs coming down the pipeline that deaden memories and cut the emotional response to memories.  These are mainly being focused on PTSD patients but they could also be used to do things similar to the conditioning meds.

In my own head cannon for Gunslinger girl great escape I see it something like this
            Conditioning process
                        Memory block
                        Enhancement of aggressive tendencies
                        Increase feeling of loyalty
                        Decreased sensitivity to pain
                        Performance enhancers
                        Growth suppressors
                        Fail safe

Is it possible to reverse engineer the drugs? Lorenzo was also a Padania-affiliated doctor before he joined the SWA. He just happened to be assigned to Onyx as a handler.

Well I'm sure its possible depending on your individual head cannon and get in the chat.

Yeah, don't ask me where, but there has been extensive discussion and research on this forum about the conditioning drugs, especially by some of the folks with the technical background to make reasonable guesses.

I don't have that, so I write about them based on observation of their effects in canon and by whatever ideas others have for them which sound good to me.

The conditioning drugs' primary purpose is as an anti-rejection treatment, and to acclimate the brains and nervous systems of the 'candidates' to their new bodies so that they can control them. Their primary side effect (aside from burning up their minds) is to make them highly suggestible. The SWA finds this very useful; combined with advanced brainwave analysis and hypnosis techniques, the drugs let the doctors program the first-generation girls like little robots. As their knowledge increases and their technique develops, they are able to reduce the dosage of the caustic drugs in the second gens, lengthening their lifespans, while still maintaining control of their cyborg guinea pigs, though any number of little anomalies do surface from time to time.

Personally I suspect Yu left details on the "conditioning" intentionally vague. At the end of the day the end effect was what was important, the specifics of the technology... plus it mitigates the risk of potentially tripping over his own feet by getting some factlet wrong. 

Canon wise, the term seems to be applied pretty broadly to everything from initial brainwashing, to the ongoing maintenance drug to, going by Rico's statement when she arrived with a bloody lip, some forms of general discipline. That leaves a lot of room for interpretation so, as you noted, a lot is left up to the individual fanfiction author's interpretation.

For my own money, I probably run along similar lines to TSM in that I view the conditioning drug (at least the ongoing dosage) primarily as an anti-rejection treatment, both to prevent those remaining biological parts from rejecting the cyborg components, and to grease the wheels, as it were, between those same. That was both for being able to control concious motions (point, run, grab, etc.), and for modifying those less consciously controlled, example: maybe the heart has to run faster and the girl correspondingly breathe harder when fully exerting herself than a regular human might. Admittedly some of that was shaped by what I needed story-wise as well: in one of my earlier chapters J+M's captors wind up taking some of Monty's conditioning pills (with a bit of quiet prodding mind) and end up as spasming masses on the floor, completely unable to control their own bodies.

As to whether the drug could be reverse-engineered: given enough time and enough know how I'm sure it could be done. One of the early concepts I had for a J+M ending was that Jethro never actually left the SIS, but was part of an effort to start up the UK's own cyborg programme. While he would not have been actively involved in acquiring secrets, someone else would have been slowly sneaking information out, with the intention of reverse-engineering enough to allow him to defect back and take Monty with him to form the core of the UK's programme. Obviously I never wound up using that one, but it did leave some interesting avenues open for just what Jethro might need to do in order to maintain his own cover.