Abbie Stillman
The Paw Print
Lysergic acid diethylamide, more commonly known as acid or LSD has recently been studied on 20 healthy volunteers who have had previously experimented with the drug. They were injected with a “moderate” dose of LSD and then had their brain activity scanned and studied. The studies showed some interesting results altering the brains activity, mood and their overall mental state. As for any negative side effects, anxiety and short-live paranoia was experienced by three of the volunteers.
The same team partook in an earlier study providing results that psilocybin decreased blood flow to certain structures in the brain. This means that closely linked brain areas became more loosely connected. This result brought the scientist to believe this could potentially show how psilocybin helps patients which depression, addiction, as well as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) to overcome these conditions. These conditions involve almost irreversible thought patterns. The team plans to create a new study on the effects of psilocybin on patients suffering from depression beginning in May.
The leader of the LSD study, Professor David Nutt, was unable to acquire the necessary funding’s to go through the latest LSD study analysis. Nutt and colleagues at Imperial College London tried raising approximately $25,000 via a crowd-funded site. After publishing’s of their efforts, the team exceeded their goal!
Believe it or not, LSD was used in psychiatric treatment before it was even considered a recreation drug. The hope was that it could serve as a treatment for numerous mental illnesses and eliminate the need for several years of psychotherapy. Approximately 40,000 patients diagnosed with schizophrenia, obsessive compulsive disorder, autism, as well as homosexuality, which was considered a mental illness at the time, were given Delysid tablets between 1950 and 1965.
Two type of therapy were taking place that included the use of LSD; one in Europe, giving doses of fifty or less micrograms of LSD over multiple sessions while encouraged to focus on their childhoods and subconscious. American psychiatrists were giving their patients high doses of 200 micrograms over multiple sessions. As oppose to having the patients focus on their past, they hoped the high might trigger positive spiritual awakening. Although results were mostly good, the studies are considered flawed today because of controls that were not employed.
It was recommended and stated to offer highly specified doses of LSD only by a psychiatrist in a controlled medical setting. Since it was on the black market by 1962, recreational use grew and the federal governments concerns about its effects increased provoking them to talk steps to restrict its official use. The researchers felt their studies were ceased before adequate results could be found about the effects of the drug. By 1965 only so many United States researchers were still allowed to possess LSD. By 1974, NIMH (National Institutes for Mental Health) had declared LSD had no actual therapeutic value whatsoever. By the 1980’s, US researchers believed that LSD could help terminally ill patients. Before this could be further explored, the study ended.
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