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Autistic Schizophrenic Children. An Experiment in the Use of LSD-25

16
Aug
posted by                filed under LSD
A.M. Freedman, E.V. Ebin, E. Wilson

Archives of General Psychiatry, 1962; 6 (203-213)

Since the hallucinogenic properties of D-lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD-25) were accidentally discovered by Hoffman in 1943 there has been wide experimentation with the drug designed to test its properties both as a psychotomimetic and as a therapeutic agent. It has been considered by some investigators as having great value in revealing the nature of the schizophrenic state and thereby advancing the understanding that leads to progress in therapy. However, other investigators, while acknowledging the undoubted psychic effects of the drug, insist that the LSD experience cannot be equated with naturally occurring psychosis. It is not the first psychopharmaceutical agent to be used as an adjunct to psychotherapy; most of its predecessors were greeted with equal enthusiasm by some because of their action in unlocking the gates of repression and thus leading to disinhibition and catharsis. In fact, according to Hoch, careful studies of a large number of patients who were under the influence of different drugs did not reveal any marked specificity as to the use of those different agents. He describes mescaline and LSD as essentially anxiety-producing drugs which, because of their magnification of the patient’s symptomatology and the accompanying increase in anxiety and fear of loss of ego integration, may lead to the release of repressed material. These same qualities may be responsible for the precipitation of overt psychosis in borderline cases.

However, the facilitation of psychotherapy with these agents is by no means uniform. Variations in response to them by different patients may be due to metabolic as well as psychological and social factors, and the attitude of the psychotherapist who employs these adjuvants has been recognized as subtly or not so subtly influencing the results obtained. While the therapeutic value of LSD in the treatment of psychoneurotic patients has been accepted with greater or less enthusiasm by various investigators, its value in the treatment of the psychoses has been considered much more questionable. In fact, by 1954, there seemed to be fairly general agreement that it provided little opportunity for genuine progress in the treatment of schizophrenics. This group of patients was found to be markedly resistant to the drug and relatively higher doses than for normal or neurotic subjects were necessary to produce any effects. Nevertheless, some striking temporary changes were observed in the behavior of schizophrenics who had been given LSD.

In a study of 18 schizophrenic patients, Busch and Johnson 4 reported that excitation was the outstanding effect of LSD administration. This group moved and talked more than usual and showed greater interest and emotion.

Hoch, Cattell, and Pennes observed psychic changes including hallucination, perceptual disturbances, and unreality feelings in a group of 21 schizophrenics. There was also evidence of anxiety, euphoria, and depression.

Pennes reported of LSD and mescaline, “The characteristic effects of both these drugs consisted of an exacerbation of pre-existent symptoms.” In a group of 25 schizophrenic subjects he found that responses to LSD could be classified as intensifications in 16 (64%), diphasic (mixtures of intensification and normalization) in 6 (24%), and absent in 3 (12%). Normalization features in the 6 diphasic reactors included definite relaxation, decreased anxiety and tension, decreased concern over phobias and compulsions, subjective euphoric state with lifting of depression, and improved affective display and general contact.

At the Second International Congress of Psychiatry in Zurich in 1957, Hoch, Pennes, and Cattell (fn 7) raised the question, “What is the reaction of psychotic subjects to drugs which have strong psychological effects or induce psychotic states in normal individuals?” Their answer was, “The majority of schizophrenics displayed intensification of their pre-existing symptomatology on administration of mescaline or LSD 25… The reactions of schizophrenic patients to mescaline and LSD 25 are usually marked with severe anxiety and other emotional patterns, while disorganization of thought and behavior patterns may be profound.”

It has been the opinion of some investigators, however, that this disorganization of behavior patterns in schizophrenics might be followed by a reorganization that could be a step toward normalization. Quite recently, Bierer and Browne stated that “We thought this so-called ‘disorganization of the psychic integration’ must be a temporary removal of the ego-defenses and possibly could be used therapeutically.” They decided to combine LSD or LSD plus methamphetamine hydrochloride (Methedrine) with group psychotherapy. Their report on results of treatment of 75 patients, of whom 30 had the diagnosis of schizophrenia or advanced schizoid states, indicated that “burnt out” schizophrenics are among those on whom LSD appears to have no effect. They also state, “Further work is necessary, but it is clear that to include 50% of schizophrenics in a group markedly reduces the chances of success.”

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Research Chemicals for Psychonauts: The Global Explosion of Designer Psychedelics

9
Aug
posted by                filed under Psychedelic Research

By David Jay Brown on Santa Cruz

As regular readers of my column are aware, I strongly support scientific research into the medical benefits of cannabis and psychedelic drugs. I think that these studies will create a wealth of new medical treatments, and I recently wrote an article about all of the nonmedical scientific research that I would like to see done with psychedelics in the future. (www.acceler8or.com/2011/07/transcending-the-medical-frontiers-exploring-the-future-of-psychedelic-drug-research/)

My training in psychobiology, and my years of working in neuroscience labs, have given me great respect for scientific research. I believe that the systematic scientific study of unexplained phenomena is the most effective way to explore and discover the nature of the universe.

However, if I hadn’t personally (and illegally) experimented with psychedelic drugs when I was younger, I would be far much less informed and aware than I am today about their effects and benefits.

Thanks to extraordinary experimental chemists, like PIHKAL author Alexander Shulgin and Purdue pharmacologist David E. Nichols, hundreds of new analogs of psilocybin, DMT, LSD, THC, and MDMA have been developed, with a whole range of fascinating effects that deserve further study. Many of these novel drugs are readily available over the Internet from chemical supply houses, legally sold as research materials and, of course, not for human consumption.

Although most of these drugs have hardly been studied at all, many of them are closely related to chemical compounds known to be fairly safe. However, no one really knows what dangers, health risks, or benefits they may carry.

The new designer psychedelics have names like “4-Acetoxy-DMT,” “4-HO-MET,” “2C-I,” and “TMA-2.” Alexander Shulgin’s books PIKAL and TIKAL are treasure-filled encyclopedias of reports on hundreds of these compounds–largely derived from two primary classes of chemicals called “tryptamines” and “phenethylamines.”

Shulgin’s books also include the chemical instructions for how to synthesize them. On websites likeErowid and Bluelight, a sophisticated community of users of these substances–self-described as “psychonauts”–discuss their reactions, experiments, mistakes, dosages, and success stories in great detail online.

A recent article on WebMD (“New Black Market Designer Drugs: Why Now?”) warned against the potential health dangers of these new designer psychedelics, as well as their potential political threat to FDA-approved, medical psychedelic drug research.

Prominent psychedelic drug researchers quoted in the article agreed that the wide use of these novelly-crafted molecules could damage the warming political climate towards the medical use of psychedelics.

After 18 years of a worldwide ban on clinical psychedelic drug research, there is now a scientific renaissance occurring–with LSD, MDMA, and psilocybin studies–and some people are concerned that this rise in nonclinical, unauthorized psychedelic experimentation could shift the political climate away from approving the studies and reinforcing the ban.

The author of the WebMD article, Daniel J. DeNoon, stated, “Society’s reaction to rampant illicit use of psychedelic drugs derailed research from the early 1970s until the mid 1990s. It remains to be seen whether the current surge in illicit designer drugs once again creates a backlash that makes legitimate research impossible.” [Actually, human psychedelic research began again in 1990, withRick Strassman’s DMT study at the University of New Mexico.]

While I certainly won’t downplay the potential dangers of taking an unstudied drug, or in any way condone any illegal activity–and I understand very well that clinical psychedelic research was banned for many years as a political backlash against their use by the counterculture–I couldn’t disagree with DeNoon more.

I believe that psychedelic drugs are catalyzing the evolution of consciousness on this planet in a profound, dramatic, necessary, and extremely positive way. It’s simply a force of nature that governments are powerless to stop, and I wouldn’t rely on FDA-approved, academic scientists to lead the way.

I think that psychedelic drugs and plants are our best hope for raising ecological awareness, for dissolving the cultural boundaries that separate us, for enhancing our creative potential, and spiritually realigning our largely parasitic species with the rest of the biosphere, before its too late.

I think that the brave individuals who have courageously experimented with these novel psychedelic drugs should be considered heroic explorers, like Sir Francis Drake or Ferdinand Magellan, charting the unknown topography of these new states of consciousness, and helping us to establish a symbiotic relationship with the rest of the biosphere.

Arguably, most sports are more physically dangerous than psychedelic drugs, and there are more hospital visits every year from high school cheerleading injuries than from dangerous reactions to psychedelic drugs.

People seem to forget that all of the medical studies with psychedelics that are currently going on today largely resulted from reports that came from brave explorers who engaged in illegal, forbidden, and unauthorized forms of self-exploration with these remarkable substances.

I don’t think that there would even be any scientific studies going on today, had it not been for all the people who used it illegally, in nonclinical settings, and reported positive benefits that they thought could help others. How else would we even know that LSD can help with cluster headaches or MDMA with PTSD?

Also, it’s not unusual for some chemists to experiment on themselves, and there is a long historical tradition of chemists doing so. Albert Hofmann, the Swiss chemist who discovered LSD, tried it on himself first.

All of the different phenethylamines and tryptamines that are discussed in Shulgin’s books were personally tested by himself and a small group of his friends first. The first psychedelic plants were likely discovered by accidental ingestion before we were even human, and this lead to deliberate ingestions long before any scientific studies.

Sure, doing unstudied psychedelic drugs–especially in the wrong dosages or in improper settings–can be risky and dangerous; no one will argue with that. But not doing psychedelic drugs can also be dangerous, as the ecological blindness, psychological imprints, and cultural conditioning that psychedelics tend to dissolve can cause us to feel, think, and act mechanically in unhealthy ways.

I think that people who haven’t had a psychedelic experience tend to be more vulnerable to rigid, dogmatic ways of thinking, and psychedelics, by their very nature, cause people to question cultural values. Governments and organized religious institutions are acutely aware of this and I think that’s primarily why they’re illegal.

The unhealthy psychological and cultural belief systems that we learn as children, without our consent, are contributing to the destruction of our global biosphere, which sustains us and all life on the planet. Psychedelics give us a valuable opportunity to temporarily transcend our selfish, individual viewpoints, see the bigger picture, and recognize our true interconnection with the web of life.

To learn more about psychedelic research chemicals see:

www.erowid.org/chemicals/chemicals.shtml

To find out what future research into psychedelic drugs may hold in store for us, see my recent article ‘Transcending the Medical Frontiers: Exploring the Future of Psychedelic Drug Research”:

www.acceler8or.com/2011/07/transcending-the-medical-frontiers-exploring-the-future-of-psychedelic-drug-research/

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Magic Mushrooms’ Can Improve Psychological Health Long Term

27
Jun
posted by                filed under Psilocybin (Mushrooms)

The psychedelic drug in magic mushrooms may have lasting medical and spiritual benefits, according to new research from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

The mushroom-derived hallucinogen, called psilocybin, is known to trigger transformative spiritual states, but at high doses it can also result in “bad trips” marked by terror and panic. The trick is to get the dose just right, which the Johns Hopkins researchers report having accomplished.

In their study, the Hopkins scientists were able to reliably induce transcendental experiences in volunteers, which offered long-lasting psychological growth and helped people find peace in their lives — without the negative effects.

“The important point here is that we found the sweet spot where we can optimize the positive persistent effects and avoid some of the fear and anxiety that can occur and can be quite disruptive,” says lead author Roland Griffiths, professor of behavioral biology at Hopkins.

Giffiths’ study involved 18 healthy adults, average age 46, who participated in five eight-hour drug sessions with either psilocybin — at varying doses — or placebo. Nearly all the volunteers were college graduates and 78% participated regularly in religious activities; all were interested in spiritual experience.

Fourteen months after participating in the study, 94% of those who received the drug said the experiment was one of the top five most meaningful experiences of their lives; 39% said it was the single most meaningful experience.

Critically, however, the participants themselves were not the only ones who saw the benefit from the insights they gained: their friends, family member and colleagues also reported that the psilocybin experience had made the participants calmer, happier and kinder.

Ultimately, Griffiths and his colleagues want to see if the same kind of psychedelic experience could help ease anxiety and fear over the long term in cancer patients or others facing death. And following up on tantalizing clues from early research on hallucinogenic drugs like LSD, mescaline and psilocybin in the 1960s (which are all now illegal), researchers are also studying whether transcendental experiences could help spur recovery from addiction and treat other psychological problems like depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.

For Griffiths’ current experiment, participants were housed in a living room-like setting designed to be calm, comfortable and attractive. While under the influence, they listened to classical music on headphones, wore eyeshades and were instructed to “direct their attention inward.”

Each participant was accompanied by two other research-team members: a “monitor” and an “assistant monitor,” who both had previous experience with people on psychedelic drugs and were empathetic and supportive. Before the drug sessions, the volunteers became acquainted enough with their team so that they felt familiar and safe. Although the experiments took place in the Hopkins hospital complex in order to ensure prompt medical attention in the event that it was needed, it never was.

As described by early advocates of the use of psychedelics — from ancient shamans to Timothy Leary and the Grateful Dead — the psilocybin experience typically involves a sense of oneness with the universe and with others, a feeling of transcending time, space and other limitations, coupled with a sense of holiness and sacredness.

Overwhelmingly, these experiences are difficult to put into words, but many of Griffiths’ participants said they were left with the sense that they understood themselves and others better and therefore had greater compassion and patience.

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First therapeutic study of LSD in 35 years finishes treatment of last subject

11
Jun
posted by                filed under LSD, Psychedelic Research

Psychiatrists in Switzerland have nearly completed their study of LSD-assisted psychotherapy in the treatment of anxiety associated with life threatening illnesses.

The study is the first of its kind to be undertaken in 35 years. Although most people associate the psychedelic drug LSD with the hippie counterculture of the 1960′s, psychiatrists had been studying the use of LSD as an aid to psychological therapy before it was federally banned in the United States in 1968.

Peter Gasser, M.D., a psychiatrist and lead investigator of the study, said in a letter (PDF) to friends and colleagues that “all the 12 participants reported a benefit from the treatment.” The study was begun in 2007 after being approved by Swiss legal authorities and the final LSD-assisted psychotherapy session was completed on May 26.

“I am proud to say that we had in 30 sessions (22 with full dose 200 μg LSD and 8 with placebo dose 20 μg LSD) no severe side effects such as psychotic experiences or suicidal crisis or flashbacks or severe anxieties (bad trips),” Gasser wrote in his letter. “That means that we can show that LSD treatment can be safe when it is done in a carefully controlled clinical setting.”

Participants reactions to the LSD-assisted psychotherapy ranged from feeling that they were more aware of what was important and meaningful in life to being more relaxed toward everything that happened to them. Only two of the 12 participants had previously taken LSD.

Gasser said he expects to have a scientific paper ready for publishing at the end of this year or next Spring, but worries that his study will not be statistically significant – meaning he wouldn’t be able to claim the results were not due to chance or factors other than the LSD therapy.

“The number of participants was small and therefore life events that were not LSD treatment related, such as worsening of the disease, having a diagnosis of metastasis or being under treatment with chemotherapy, etc. had a strong influence on the results,” he explained.

But even if the results are not statistically significant, the study will still provide evidence that LSD can be safely and reasonably used in a clinical setting, according to Gasser.

The study was funded by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies.

Similar clinical studies have been conducted using the psychedelic drug psilocybin, the active substance in so-called “magic mushrooms.”

A study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry found psilocybin can safely improve the moods of patients with advanced-stage cancer and anxiety.

The study was headed by Dr. Charles S. Grob, a professor of psychiatry at the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and found a significant improvement of mood and a reduction in symptoms of anxiety up to six months after receiving psilocybin-assisted therapy.

“We are working with a patient population that often does not respond well to conventional treatments,” said Dr. Grob. “Following their treatments with psilocybin, the patients and their families reported benefit from the use of this hallucinogen in reducing their anxiety. This study shows psilocybin can be administered safely, and that further investigation of hallucinogens should be pursued to determine their potential benefits.”

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