It has been almost 35 years since the latest research study on the psychedelic drug LSD. Before 1972, there were over 700 medical studies demonstrating that LSD-assisted psychotherapy can reduce anxiety and the fear of death in patients who have terminal cancer. It was also shown to cure alcohol addiction and reduce the symptoms of several difficult-to-teat psychiatric illnesses. Other early studies showed implications that LSD could aid creativity, problem-solving, and spiritual awareness.
But since that time it has become incredibly difficult for any researcher to get government permission to do more research. Part of this may be due to the reckless promotion of psychedelic use that permeated the 1960s counterculture. Since then, psychedelic research has become a hot-button political issue.
However, in 2008 Swiss psychiatrist Peter Gassar was granted to do one of the first government-approved studies on LSD since 1972. His work is being sponsored by the Santa Cruz Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS).
The study is small, but monumental, because it may represent a change in the political and scientific climate regarding psychedelics being used in therapy. Gassar’s study examines the effects of LSD on anxiety and suffering associated with life-threatening illnesses. He is currently working with a modest group of 12 individuals. The last participant received his final treatment on May 26th, and now Gassar is going through some preliminary data analysis and preparing an article for publication in a peer-reviewed journal.
According to Gassar, the research looks promising so far, as it seems to confirm what previous studies have shown about LSD’s effects on reducing the fear of death in those who suffer terminal illnesses. The Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) hopes that this will spur future studies on the effects of psychedelics in a therapeutic setting, especially MDMA (ecstacy) in the treatment of those with PTSD, and LSD and psilocybin in the treatment of other forms of anxiety, depression, addiction, and OCD.
I’m personally looking forward to future research testing the effects on psychedelics. I believe that the lack of research over the past few decades has been mostly politically-driven, not based on scientific inquiry. I think the counterculture movement of the ’60s may have left a bad taste in people’s mouths, but it is time to re-focus on psychedelic use in a more sensible, therapeutic-driven setting, where it seems there is ample evidence that it can have positive effects.
Rick Doblin, the executive director at MAPS, has stated that since 1990, “open-minded regulators at the FDA decided to put science before politics when it came to psychedelic and medical marijuana research.” Current research into the benefits of psychedelics now involves about a half dozen studies around the world. It’s a small and underrepresented topic, but this could be the start of bigger things to come for the future of psychedelic research. It will be interesting to see how the field evolves over the next couple of decades.
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“It’s the realm of mystical experience. And those who’ve been there describe the visit as the most significant event of their lives. Until recent times that was a world known only to holy men, to saints, or perhaps to the insane. Then a generation ago this drug, LSD, escaped from the laboratory. It was consumed by millions of young people. To some it’s a doorway to the mystical universe, chemical ecstasy, enlightenment in a bottle. To others it’s a dangerous and subversive poison.”
“LSD is one of the strangest and most controversial substances known to science. A dose smaller than a grain of salt precipitates a hazardous mental journey into a universe of hallucination, intense emotion and, some believe, mystical revelation. These remarkable effects were discovered by the Swiss chemist Albert Hoffman in 1943. During the 50′s the LSD was used widely for research in psychiatric hospitals. Than in the early 1960′s LSD leaked out of the laboratory. With bizarre and unforeseen consequences the drug was consumed by a generation of young people seeking spiritual transcendence and an escape from the conventional world.”