Makayle Hill

Biology 1615

March 25, 2016

Lysergic Acid Diethylamide, or more commonly known as LSD, is a semisynthetic

compound that was first synthesized in 1938 by Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann. LSD was first
created to help with psychotherapy and was used to help treat alcoholism, neurosis, and
psychosomatic disorders.
When LSD was first discovered, many scientists and researchers used LSD as a way to
model psychiatric disorders and also a way that therapy patients could break down boundaries
and open up during psychotherapy.
LSD belongs to the class of drugs known as Hallucinogen and when taken it distorts the
perceptions of reality and alters mood. Some reported effects of LSD are dramatic changes in
sensations and feelings, experiencing several different emotions at once, as well as undergoing
synesthesia hearing color, seeing sounds. Nonetheless, according to the Cleveland Clinic, the
exact effect of LSD on the brain remains unknown. But the drug is believed to affect your brains
response to serotonin a neurotransmitter that involves your emotions, moods and perceptions
(luxury.rehab.com, 2016). However, because of the known effects that LSD has and how it puts
the user in a deep psychedelic state, therapists began to develop a form of psychotherapy using
psychedelic drugs.
The development of psychotherapy with psychedelic drugs started in the 1950s with two
approaches: psycholytic method and psychedelic method. The psycholytic method used lower
doses and frequent sessions, while the psychedelic method used higher doses in fewer sessions.
These two methods enabled participants to work through and integrate difficult feelings and
situations, thereby reducing anxiety and depression (Wilkins, 2014). Even though LSD was

Makayle Hill

Biology 1615

March 25, 2016

used for its intended purpose and these methods helped patients reduce anxiety and depression,
the research into LSD-assisted psychotherapy rapidly came to a halt when LSD was made illegal
because of increased nonmedical use.
Although LSD became illegal in the United States, some LSD-assisted psychotherapy
continued in other countries like Czechoslovakia, the Netherlands, and Germany.
In 2007, the United States initiated the first controlled study of LSD-assisted
psychotherapy in more than 40 years.The target population of this study was chosen because
patients with life-threatening illnesses often fail to obtain satisfactory emotional relief from
currently available treatment options.
The method for this experiment is a phase 2 double-blind, active placebo-controlled,
randomized clinical trial. Half of the subjects were diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder
(GAD) and eleven of the 12 subjects had no prior experience with LSD.
The 20 ug of LSD was chosen as an active placebo to produce short lived, mild, and
detectable LSD effects that would not substantially facilitate a therapeutic process (Wilkins,
2014). After the LSD was administered to all the participants, they were instructed to focus and
follow personal process of perception, emotion, and cognition. A brief review of the days
experiences was recorded once the eight-hour session had ended and the LSD effects had worn
off.
As a recap, therapist developed psychotherapy with psychedelic drugs so that while under
the influence patients could perceive reality through a psychedelic state, allowing the
participant to encounter his/her own inner realities during an emotionally intensified dream-like

Makayle Hill

Biology 1615

March 25, 2016

journey (Wilkins, 2014). Thoughts are accelerated and modified interpretation and meanings
of relationships and objects are broadened.
So the question is: can LSD reduce anxiety?
The patients were followed up on 12 months after the experiment ended and the
researchers had great results. As Peter Gasser, the man who conducted the therapy and followed
up with his patients a year after the trial concluded, best put it, their anxiety went down and
stayed down (nytimes.com, 2014).
These results tell us that when LSD is administered to patients safely in a
methodologically medically supervised psychotherapeutic setting, it can reduce anxiety and even
depression.
Although there is an urgent need for more effective treatments for patients with anxiety
and LSD has a means to help reduce anxiety, it is suggested that larger controlled studies are
warranted.

Makayle Hill

Biology 1615

March 25, 2016

Works Cited
luxury.rehab.com. (2016). Retrieved from www.rehab.com:
http://luxury.rehabs.com/psychedelics-abuse/long-term-effects-lsd/
nytimes.com. (2014). Retrieved from nytimes.com.
Wilkins, L. W. (2014). Safety and Efficacy of Lysergic Acid Diethylamide Assisted
Psychotherapy for Anxiety Associated with Life-threatening Diseases. The
Journal of Nervous and Mental Diseases, 202, 513-520.