LSD in the clinic again

[Jakobien]

The use of LSD (d-lysergic acid diethylamide) in psychotherapy is to be studied for the first time in 35 years.

A trial to determine whether patients with anxiety relating to advanced-stage illnesses can be safely given LSD-assisted psychotherapy and whether it improves their anxiety symptoms has been approved by a Swiss ethics committee.

The trial will be a randomised, active placebo controlled double-blind dose-response, Phase II pilot study with 12 subjects, conducted in Switzerland by Peter Gasser, psychiatrist, psychotherapist and president of the Swiss Medical Association for Psycholytic Therapy (SAEPT).

The Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (Maps) in the US is sponsoring the study as part of its goal for LSD to be available for prescription use by trained and licensed psychiatrists and psychotherapists in regulated clinics. The organisation is donating at least $50 000 of the estimated $150 000 cost and plans to raise the remainder.

Gasser hopes to start the trial by the end of the year and anticipates it will last about two years. Before he can begin, approval is also needed from SwissMedic, the Swiss drug regulation authority. 'We have had informal conversations with officials within SwissMedic,' said Rick Doblin, president of Maps, 'and believe that SwissMedic will approve a study that has already obtained approval from a Swiss ethics committee.' He expects to get approval before the end of the summer.

The trial will restart research that was stopped by regulatory agencies around the world in the early 1970s, mainly because of political concerns and in response to large-scale use and abuse of LSD at the time.

LSD is classified as a psychedelic drug or hallucinogen. It produces sometimes intense changes in perception, cognition and emotion that last for up to 12 hours. Previous clinical research and anecdotal reports suggest it could be used to treat psychiatric conditions that emerge after a life-threatening illness is diagnosed. Reports cite changes in perceptions of the self and the world, including ego dissolution, feelings of transcendence or transformation, and decreased distress that may help people grappling with physical deterioration and impending death. While LSD can produce both negative and positive emotions, the researchers hypothesise that the combination of LSD within a therapeutic setting will reduce anxiety afterwards.

Published on 16 July 2007
By Karen Harries-Rees
Published in Chemistry World News (rsc.org)

http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/News/ ... 070702.asp

 

[phalaris]

 

[MindAstronaut]

Wauwoaaa This is Great!!

Thats the right picture Phalaris :wink:

 

[Spidi]

LSD is classified as a psychedelic drug or hallucinogen. It produces sometimes intense changes in perception, cognition and emotion that last for up to 12 hours. Previous clinical research and anecdotal reports suggest it could be used to treat psychiatric conditions that emerge after a life-threatening illness is diagnosed. Reports cite changes in perceptions of the self and the world, including ego dissolution, feelings of transcendence or transformation, and decreased distress that may help people grappling with physical deterioration and impending death. While LSD can produce both negative and positive emotions, the researchers hypothesise that the combination of LSD within a therapeutic setting will reduce anxiety afterwards.

Makes me honoured I have had the chance to use this wonderful substance. This is great news and - finally - a step in the right direction. Hurray!

 

[Dantediv86]

thank god swiss people exhist!! theyhave the same attitude towards cannabis, last time i checked...anyone who confirm?...dis-confirm?...
it doesn't really matter anyway
nice one phalaris!
ONE STEP BEYOND!

 

[Caduceus Mercurius]

A video about this: http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=6540905926032767614&hl=en

 

[Monochromatic_Knight]

Not to turn this into a pissing contest but for the sake of accuracy, the Swiss study won't be the first study with LSD on humans in the last 35 years.

Dr. Peter Gasser and MAPS had been vying for the title of "first
legal human LSD research study in over 35 years," but we have been
beaten to the punch by Amanda Fielding's Beckley Foundation, which is
sponsoring a US study that will administer two modest doses of LSD to
12 healthy LSD-experienced participants while measuring its effects
on experience, brain waves, and perceptual tasks. I guess MAPS and
Dr. Gasser will have to settle for the title of "first legal LSD
therapy research study in over 35 years." We'll take it.
Congratulations to our allies at Beckley!

Beckley's initial pilot study will look at dose-related changes in
consciousness using electroencephalography (EEG). It will investigate
the hypothesis that LSD induces increased synchronization in the
electrical activity between neurons, and that this enhanced neural
synchrony, plus increased integration of activity between cortical
regions, will be linked with changes in cognition. In particular, new
neurocognitive measures will be applied to study attention and
temporal integration on perceptual tasks. The recruitment phase of
the study is already underway.

Also, there were studies going on in Czechoslovakia with LSD and humans until 1974 so the "35 years" isn't entirely correct either.

 

[Dantediv86]

shall we say in a long time??? :wink:

 

[Jakobien]

These additions are indeed important, thanks Mono

 

[aE3]

I guess the '35 years' is in reference to the US prohibition of LSD including for research purposes.

There has been a recent move towards develloping a real medical study in the use of LSD against cluster headaches.

There is substantial anecdotal evidence that serotonergic psychedelics such as psilocybin (mushrooms) and LSD and LSA d-Lysergic acid amide (Rivea corymbosa seeds) abort cluster periods and extend remission periods.[21][22] Melatonin, psilocybin, serotonin, and the triptan abortive drugs are closely-related tryptamines.

Dr. Andrew Sewell and Dr. John Halpern at McLean Hospital in Boston have investigated the ability of low doses of psilocybin ("magic mushrooms") to treat cluster headaches. Dr. Sewell examined medical records of 53 patients who had taken hallucinogenic mushrooms and reported in Neurology that the majority of them found partial or complete relief from cluster attacks.[23] A clinical study of these treatments under the auspices of MAPS is being developed by researchers at Harvard Medical School, McLean Hospital.[24]

Within the United States, the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) of 1970 makes it illegal to possess hallucinogens (including psilocybin and LSD), classifying them as Schedule I drugs with no legitimate medical use. Patients who use psilocybin to treat their symptoms face legal prosecution, although there are no known convictions.

excerpt of : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cluster_headache
+ here's the site of the people who undertook this 'non-convential' research on themselves :
http://clusterbusters.com/

 

[aE3]

this is the last part of an article that links off the article that Jakobien posted :

LSD research today

LSD, d-lysergic acid diethylamide, has been studied for its potential to treat alcoholics, help terminal cancer patients and rehabilitate convicts.

After Albert Hofmann discovered LSD's potency in 1943 there was considerable research interest. But this came to an end after LSD was placed under the US controlled substances act in 1970 and classed as a schedule 1 drug, meaning that it was considered to have a high abuse potential and no accepted medical use. By the early 1970s research was almost entirely stopped by regulatory agencies around the world.

The last project, which ran until the 1980s, was Jan Bastiaans' work in the Netherlands. He used LSD psychotherapy to treat people with concentration camp syndrome.

Currently, there are no legal human studies with LSD, although there are some with other psychedelics such as ecstasy or MDMA (3,4-methylene-dioxymethamphetamine), DMT (N,N-dimethyltryptamine) and psilocybin. It is possible to get permission for human LSD studies from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Drugs Enforcement Agency but it takes time and there is unlikely to be any funding forthcoming.

The FDA has recently approved a human study looking at how LSD affects the brain's neurotransmitter systems. The institutional review board (IRB), still has to give its approval, which could take until next summer. Until then, the researchers don't want to reveal any specifics about the study location or design.

Also, Andrew Sewell and John Halpern, at Harvard Medical School, US, are developing a study to look into the use of LSD and psilocybin to treat cluster headaches. They have collected responses from internet questionnaires of people who have used psychedelics to treat cluster headaches and are hoping to submit the project to the Harvard IRB in the next few months and after to the FDA.

Meanwhile, David Nichols, at the Purdue University school of pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences, US, researches the effects of LSD, and other drugs, on brain neurochemistry and behaviour in rats.

http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/Issue ... ry/LSD.asp

 

[aE3]

ooops - just saw that the cluster stuff was already posted