A clinical examination of chronic LSD use in the community

“Go ask Alice, when she’s 10-feet tall”: Psychosocial correlates to lifetime LSD use among a national sample of US adults

Introduction

Once thought a rarely used drug, LSD use is steadily increasing among US adults. A greater understanding of social factors and psychological determinants leading to lifetime LSD use can assist health educators and professionals in treating this growing problem. This study analyzed psychosocial factors related to LSD use among a national sample of adults.

Methods

A secondary data analysis of the 2017 National Survey on Drug Use and Health was performed.

Results

Results from the final multivariate logistic regression revealed that those who were male, African American or Hispanic, used alcohol, ecstasy, marijuana, inhalants, cocaine, and cigarettes before the age of 21 years, thought about suicide, got a kick out of doing things risky, and tested oneself to do risky things were more likely to use LSD.

Conclusions

This suggests that psychodynamic processes, for example, possible activation of emotional conflicts – can take place spontaneously – during ayahuasca intake in this particular setting. Some participants attributed symbolic meaning to the visionary content, which was more likely to take place in psychotherapeutically motivated clients. The specific setting influence as well as corresponding expectations of the participants in native wisdom could have considerable influence on experiences and interpretations, such as communication with entities as well as receiving personal teachings.

A Social History and Analysis of the Lsd Controversy

The evolution of LSD use and the controversy surrounding it are reviewed. LSD is treated as a powerful drug whose mind-revealing effects embodied the potential for both psychological harm and personal insight. Predominant motives for LSD use appear to have shifted from desire for self-exploration to a desire for fun. Early LSD use, stimulated by curiosity and adventure seeking, focused on the personal, existential, and spiritual insights attributed (sometimes erroneously) to the drug. Opposition to LSD developed as LSD became a focus or symbol for generational conflict, parental worries, political dissent, irrational behavior and violence, personal cognitive dissonance, and threat to traditional values and institutions. LSD use declined because changes in the social conditions confronting youth created a desire for a type of drug experience LSD was ill-suited to provide, and because changes in users' attitudes and preparations changed the nature of the LSD experience. The relation of drug preference to social conditions, the attributional biases concerning drugs, and the similarities between LSD proponents' and opponents' behavior are discussed.

Improvement of hallucinogen persisting perception disorder (HPPD) with oral risperidone: case report

We describe a 38-year-old woman who developed symptoms of hallucinogen persisting perception disorder (HPPD) after using lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) once and continued to have symptoms of HPPD for nearly 17 years, although she did not use LSD after her first use. The symptoms of HPPD were temporally related to her first LSD use and she responded well to risperidone within a few weeks of commencing on the same. Although different medications have been tried in the management of HPPD including risperidone, olanzapine, clonidine, fluoxetine, sertraline, benzodiazepines and anti-epileptic medications, none have been proven to be the definitive medication of choice in the treatment of HPPD. Furthermore, there have been case reports suggesting worsening of symptoms with risperidone; however, the response to risperidone in our patient suggests the possibility of its effectiveness in the management of HPPD symptoms in some patients.

Treatment of alcoholism using psychedelic drugs: a review of the program of research

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.

Multiple drug abuse involving nonopiate, nonalcoholic substances. II. Physical damage, long-term psychological effects and treatment approaches and success

A review of the literature of multiple drug abuse involving two or more drug categories where at least one is a nonopiate, nonalcoholic substance (MDA NONA) suggested the possibility that sedative-hypnotics were the culpable agent for neuropsychological deficits in this group. Individually, amphetamines and hallucinogens, primarily LSD, have been associated with long-term psychological disturbance. While many abusers of these drugs who develop psychoses have been documented to be emotionally disturbed prior to drug usage, indicating that the drug exacerbated a prepsychotic condition, other abusers have no such history, indicating a drug-induced psychosis. Current treatment approaches appear to be ineffective for MDA-NONA abusers, as indicated by poor retention rates and relapse to drug use.

The comparability of drug use rating scales

College students (N = 161) were asked via a self-administered questionnaire about their frequency of drug use, duration of drug use, and sale of drugs to others for six categories of illicit psychoactive drugs. These items were combined to yield four indices of illicit drug involvement: frequency of marijuana use, total number of illicit drugs used, a Guttman scale of dichotomous items representing use vs nonuse in the six categories, and a summative index based on three related dimensions of drug involvement. Results indicated that all four indices were substantially related, suggesting that researchers can have confidence in the comparability of findings generated in past studies of college drug use using different drug-rating scales.