Dr Howard Whitaker and LSD-Assisted Therapy at Mayday Hills Psychiatric Hospital, Beechworth, Victoria, Australia

Advocates of the therapeutic use of psychedelic drugs have argued that a promising approach to treatment was prematurely abandoned in the 1960s primarily because of Richard Nixon's 'War on Drugs'.This paper (1) briefly describes research in the 1950s and 1960s in North America on the use of LSD to treat alcohol dependence, anxiety in terminal illness, and anxiety and depression; and (2) discusses the factors that led to its abandonment. An analysis of historical scholarship on psychedelic research in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s in North America. Research on psychedelic drugs in psychiatry was abandoned for a number of reasons that acted in concert. A major factor was that clinical research on psychedelic drugs was caught up in the tighter regulation of pharmaceutical research after the Thalidomide disaster in 1963. Psychedelic drugs also presented special challenges for randomised, placebo-controlled clinical trials in the 1970s that were not as positive as the claims made by their advocates in the 1950s and 1960s. Clinical research became more difficult after 1965 when Sandoz ceased providing psychedelic drugs for research and their nonmedical use was prohibited in 1970. The demise of psychedelic drug research was not solely due to the 'War on Drugs'. It was hastened by tighter regulation of pharmaceutical research, the failure of controlled clinical trials to live up to the claims of psychedelic advocates, and the pharmaceutical industry's lack of interest in funding clinical trials.

Following Albert Hofmann's discovery of LSD's psychoactive properties in 1943, and previous to their scheduling as controlled substances, the psychedelic drugs were widely studied—six international conferences and hundreds of papers discussed their potential therapeutic usefulness. The observation that the frightening experience of delirium tremens sometimes led alcoholics to moderate their alcohol intake suggested to early psychedelic researchers that the “psychotomimetic” experience thought to be produced by LSD could be used to treat alcoholism. A number of hypothesis-generating studies employing a variety of research designs to examine this premise were completed, but relatively few controlled trials attempted hypothesis testing. After twenty-five years of study, a combination of flawed methodology, uneven results and social reprehension led to the abandonment of research on the therapeutic use of psychedelic drugs, leaving many avenues of inquiry unexplored and many questions unanswered. Today, after a thirty-year hiatus, this research is gradually being resumed, and there is renewed interest in the findings of previous studies. This article explores the history of one branch of psychedelic research, the therapeutic use of LSD in the treatment of alcoholism, and of the events that led to the relabeling of the “hallucinogens” as drugs of abuse.

The rationale of psychedelic therapy with alcoholic patients is focused on the alienation-breaking potential of "peak" or psychedelic experiences induced with the aid of LSD. An exemplary LSD session report and MMPI data on 69 pilot patients are presented for illustration. While all present results indicate that psychedelic therapy does add significantly to presently available alcoholic rehabilitation resources, it is emphasized that safe and effective use of LSD requires specialized training.

The purpose of this investigation was to compare the individual and combined consumption of LSD – lysergic acid diethylamide, the psychedelic drug that causes visual hallucinations, a distorted sense of time and a feeling of euphoria, ecstasy and alcohol by undergraduation people in São Paulo, Brazil. Young people can mix hallucinogens with other drugs like ecstasy or alcohol to increase the effects. In fact, the average age which many people start using LSD is around 20, but the number of people who abuse LSD today is far less than in the 1960s and 1970s and one factor limiting higher LSD use is a lack of availability.METHODOLOGYThe instrument used for data collection was Google FormsTM. The instant addition of responses to the data set makes this tool appealing for research purposes. Additionally, the respondents involved in the study has been regularly using Google FormsTM, and it was therefore considered the most appropriate method for data collection. The results of the survey was statistically analyzed. Within the various areas the group of students from medical, biology, nursing, engineering, architecture, psychology, and other undergraduate areas, were chosen because their experience using these tools.RESULTSData obtained showed that in a sample of 907 students, 71 (7.82%) students have used LSD, and 42 (59.15%) of these also used ecstasy, but 40 (56.33%) in this group used alcohol with LSD or ecstasy in their experiences. The undergraduate areas that consumed the most, is health (medical students), 29 (40.84%) for LSD and 46 (64.78%) for ecstasy. The undergraduate areas that consumed less than others is biology, 4 (5,6%) for LSD and only one (1,4%) for ecstasy.CONCLUSIONSIn fact, medical students have a high incidence of LSD and ecstasy use with or without alcohol. It's surprising because they supposedly know the damages of this practice, more than the students of other areas. This work was conducted in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration. CAAE(Br)67881517.1.0000.5511. All participants had full understanding and signed informed consent document.This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.

Horizon: Psychedelic Science makes the case that the cold war on psychedelic research is over and the warm light of science and reason is about to shine on this subject....

Psychedelic therapies are returning to psychiatry Professor Erika Dyck, Canada Research Chair in History of Health & Social Justice at the University of Saskatchewan argues that psychedelic drugs and therapies, whether conducted in ceremonial settings or clinical ones, are being touted as life-changing moments for their capacity to efficiently transform an individual's perspective on themselves. The number of people who suffer from mental illness has grown steadily, with the WHO now reporting that 1 in 5 people in the world lives with mental illness. Due to this, numerous psychedelic therapies have also emerged on this landscape as a potential treatment that may improve individual lives while also transforming the way we diagnose and treat mental illness around the world – labelled a "psychedelic renaissance". Initiatives to legalize, decriminalize, and/or regulate psychedelics have taken different legal forms – as the legal landscape is changing quickly – but there are undeniable and unprecedented successes in treating alcoholism and trauma-based disorders with psychedelic therapies, which Professor Dyck recommends to be explored in more depth.

Since reports about CIA-funded LSD studies came out in the 1970s, psychedelic drugs have invoked images of unethical experimentation and "mad scientists" in the public imagination. Even now, as the stigma surrounding psychedelics diminishes in the 21st century, the figure of the "mad scientist" continues to occupy a space in what Ido Hartogsohn calls the "collective set and setting," the larger framework of cultural understandings that shape how individuals experience psychedelic drugs. Scientists and humanities scholars who study these drugs have responded to this issue by drawing boundaries between those who used psychedelics carefully and those who used them ignorantly. Yet these boundaries were not always so clear in the past. Drawing on historical examples of LSD's use as a correctional tool in Canada, I show how enthusiasm about the drug's potential led several experienced and knowledgeable psychedelic therapists to use it on vulnerable populations in diverse institutional settings, such as correctional facilities. These examples reveal how the institutional context of modern industrial societies shaped the application of psychedelic therapy in the past and suggest that today's therapists need to carefully consider how this broader context impacts their work.

Psychedelic drugs have long been known to be capable of inducing mystical or transcendental experiences. However, given the common “recreational” nature of much present-day psychedelic use, with typical doses tending to be lower than those commonly taken in the 1960s, the extent to which illicit use of psychedelics today is associated with mystical experiences is not known. Furthermore the mild psychedelic MDMA (“Ecstasy”) is more popular today than “full” psychedelics such as LSD or psilocybin, and the contribution of illicit MDMA use to mystical experiences is not known. The present study recruited 337 adults from the website and newsletter of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), most of whom reported use of a variety of drugs both licit and illicit including psychedelics. Although only a quarter of the sample reported “spiritual” motives for using psychedelics, use of LSD and psilocybin was significantly positively related to scores on two well-known indices of mystical experiences in a dose-related manner, whereas use of MDMA, cannabis, cocaine, opiates and alcohol was not. Results suggest that even in today's context of “recreational” drug use, psychedelics such as LSD and psilocybin, when taken at higher doses, continue to induce mystical experiences in many users.

Psychedelic substances have demonstrated promise in the treatment of depression, anxiety, and substance use disorders. Significant media coverage has been dedicated to psychedelic medicine, but it is unclear whether the public associates psilocybin with its potential therapeutic benefits. The COVID-19 pandemic led to an increase in depression, anxiety, and substance abuse in the general population. This study attempts to link increases in interest in these disorders with increases in interest in psilocybin using Google Trends. Weekly interest-over-time Google Trends data for 4 years, from the week of March 11, 2018, to the week of March 6, 2022, were obtained for the following terms: "psilocybin," "psychedelic therapy," "cannabis," "cocaine," "antidepressant," "depression," "anxiety," and "addiction." Important psilocybin-related news and the declaration of the pandemic were noted. Trends data for each of the queried terms were plotted, and multiple regression analysis was performed to determine the slope of the prepandemic and postpandemic data with 95% CIs. Nonparametric Tau-U analysis was performed correcting for baseline trends. Results from this test were used to make inferences about the pre- and postpandemic trends and inferences about the change in overall level of searches between the 2 groups. Tau values for prepandemic data were significant for stable trends, all ranging -0.4 to 0.4. Tau values for postpandemic data showed positive trends for "psilocybin," "psychedelic therapy," and "antidepressant." All other trends remained stable in the range of -0.4 to 0.4. When comparing Tau values for pre- and postpandemic data, overall increases in relative search volume (RSV) were seen for "psilocybin," "psychedelic therapy," and "anxiety," and overall decreases in RSV were seen for "depression," "addiction," and "cocaine." Overall RSVs for "cannabis" and "antidepressant" remained stable as Tau values ranged between -0.4 and 0.4. In the immediate aftermath of the declaration of the pandemic, drop-offs in interest were seen for all terms except for "anxiety" and "cannabis." After the initial shock of a global pandemic, "psilocybin" and "psychedelic therapy" groups demonstrated increases in interest trends and overall RSV. These data suggest that overall interest in "psilocybin" and "psychedelic therapy" increased at higher rates and to higher levels after than before the declaration of the pandemic. This is consistent with our hypothesis that interest increased for these treatments after the pandemic as incidence of depression, anxiety, and addiction increased. However, there may be other drivers of interest for these topics, since interest in antidepressants-the typical pharmacologic treatments for depression and anxiety-followed the expected pattern of drop-off and accelerated interest back to prepandemic levels. Interest in "psilocybin" and "psychedelic therapy" may have also been partially driven by popular culture hype and novelty, explaining why interest increased at a higher rate post pandemic and continued to grow, surpassing prior interest.

The recreational use of LSD, a synthetic psychedelic drug, has surged in recent years, coinciding with a renewed research focus on its potential psychotherapeutic properties. This study aims to describe the experiences and perceptions of individuals engaging in LSD use for the first time, derived from a large international sample. This study utilised 2018 Global Drug Survey data collected from 6 November 2017 to 10 January 2018. Participants who initiated LSD use in the preceding 12 months answered questions on their experiences, social settings, harm-reduction behaviours, and demographics. Descriptive statistics were employed, and characteristics of those seeking emergency medical treatment (EMT) and those not planning further LSD use were compared with other respondents. Among 3340 respondents who used LSD in the past year, their first-time experiences generally exceeded expectations, with 97.7% expressing excitement. Adverse and unwanted side effects were rarely reported, and only 17 individuals needed EMT. Feelings of fear were reported by most (64.1%), but only very mildly and not enough to put them off from wanting to use LSD again. Although the occurrence of unwanted side effects seems low and the LSD experience is generally pleasurable, vigilance amid the rising illicit use of LSD through harm-reduction education is still important in preventing possible risks.

The current study uses a qualitative methodology to investigate socio-cultural and psychological aspects involved in the use of LSD and comparable psychedelic substances. To date, 26 narrative interviews have been conducted with 12 female and 14 male users aged 19 to 53 years. The resulting data were subjected to content analysis in several thematic areas. Subjective reports of LSD use and experiences are considered among the complex interrelationship of drug effects, individual and environmental factors, as well as in comparison to the results reported in earlier research. Preliminary results suggest the use of LSD is largely independent of the “party drugs” scene, although its users do embrace elements of alternative lifestyles and subcultures. The majority of participants report their LSD experiences to be of great importance and to have intellectual relevance for their individuation process and personality development. Exploration of the self and the desire to experience profound changes in their perception of the world are reported as primary motives for LSD use, in addition to its hedonistic value. Individual backgrounds, knowledge and patterns of reaction are found to strongly influence the character of the drug effects that are experienced. Next to a wide range of extra-pharmacological factors, various methods for actively modifying LSD induced states were discovered to determine the general character of LSD experiences. These are discussed with regard to their implications for the development of suitable harm reduction concepts.

IntroductionPost-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is associated with significant patient burden. While pharmacotherapies and evidence-based psychotherapy interventions (EBPI) are effective, studies consistently highlight inadequate outcomes and high treatment dropout. Psychedelic therapy (PT) has shown preliminary promise across difficult-to-treat conditions, including MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD, however trials of classical psychedelics in PTSD are lacking. Understanding patients’ experiences of EBPI could help promote safety in PT.AimTo systematically review qualitative research on patients’ subjective experience of EBPI for PTSD, and of PT, and examine areas of overlap and divergence between them.MethodsSystematic literature searches for studies published between 2010 and 2023 were conducted on OVID, PubMed, Web of Science, and PsycInfo. Included were original studies in English that presented qualitative data of patient experiences of EBPI in PTSD, or PT for any indication. Extracted data from included studies were analysed using thematic synthesis. Syntheses were completed separately for EBPI and PT, before similarities and differences between the therapies were identified.Results40 research articles were included for review: 26 studies on EBPI for PTSD, and 14 studies on PT. EBPI studied were CBT, EMDR, CPT and PE. Psychedelic compounds studied were psilocybin, ibogaine, LSD, MDMA and ketamine, for treatment of substance use disorders, anxiety relating to physical illness, depression, and PTSD. Core themes from patient experiences of EBPI: 1) patient burden in PTSD treatment; 2) readiness; 3) key mechanisms of change; 4) psychological safety and trust. Themes identified in the review of PT: 1) indirect trauma processing; 2) reorganisation of self-narratives via processes of relatedness and identification; 3) key treatment characteristics.ConclusionThis study suggests overlap between patients’ experience of EBPI and PT in terms of key mechanisms of change, the importance of psychological safety and readiness to engage in treatment. Trauma-informed care paradigms and practices may improve safety and acceptability of PT research.

Associations between psychedelic use and cannabis use disorder in a nationally representative sample

The continued endemic use of hallucinogenic drugs, and of LSD in particular, raises concern regarding their short and long term adverse consequences. The epidemiology of LSD abuse is reviewed suggesting an increase in LSD use among the young as the prevalence rates for other substances continues to fall. Evidence supports the association of LSD use with panic reactions, prolonged schizoaffective psychoses and post-hallucinogen perceptual disorder, the latter being present continually for as long as 5 years. Evidence does not support claims of genetic disorders arising from hallucinogens. In light of the foregoing, current data confirm earlier findings of long lasting psychopathology arising in vulnerable individuals from the use of LSD. A hypothetical long term molecular mechanism of adverse effects is proposed.

Objective: Suicide is a global health concern, and innovative interventions that target suicidality are needed. While psychedelic therapy shows promise for a range of mental health concerns, including suicidality, not all psychedelic therapy trials have published their suicidality results and no meta-analysis has been published on the topic. Therefore, we completed the first meta-analysis of patient-level data on the effects of psychedelics on suicidality.Data Sources: We conducted a systematic search of MEDLINE, PsycINFO, and PubMed for all psychedelic therapy clinical trials (last search: November 5, 2020).Study Selection: We identified all psychedelic therapy trials that included a measure or measure-item that assesses suicidality.Data Extraction: Suicidality data were requested from study authors and extracted using a data extraction form developed for this study.Results: We identified 8, and successfully collected data from 7, relevant trials. Analysis of standardized mean differences (SMDs) indicated that, relative to baseline, psychedelic therapy was associated with large effect sizes for acute (80-240 min) and sustained (1 day, 1-8 weeks, and 3-4 months) decreases in suicidality (SMD range = -1.48 to -2.36; 95% CI range, -4.30 to 0.23). At 6 months, the effect size was medium (SMD = -0.65; 95% CI, -1.14 to -0.16). Reductions in suicidality were significant at all time points except for 7-8 weeks. Acute and post-acute elevations in suicidality were rare (6.5% and 3.0%, respectively).Conclusions: Limitations include heterogeneous samples and interventions, as well as limited sample size and number of studies. Results provide preliminary support for the safety of psychedelic therapy and its positive effect on suicidality. Controlled trials that specifically evaluate the effect of psychedelic therapy on suicidality may be warranted.