LSD May Help Alcoholics Stay Off Booze

A common psychedelic may help alcoholics stay on the wagon, according to a meta-analysis of studies from the late '60s and early '70s.

Those given a single dose of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) were almost twice as likely as controls to report less alcohol use at first follow-up (P=0.0003), Teri S. Krebs, PhD, and Pal-Orjan Johansen, PhD, of Harvard and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, reported online in the Journal of Psychopharmacology.

"Given the evidence for a beneficial effect of LSD on alcoholism, it is puzzling why this treatment approach has been largely overlooked," they wrote.

Known for its profound effects on the mind, LSD was once studied for potential benefits in treating alcoholism. Some trials, largely conducted in the late 1960s and early 1970s, showed that the hallucinogenic drug could help prevent patients from relapsing into alcohol abuse.

Research fell off after the drug's complicated social and political history made it difficult to get grants approved, the researchers explained.

So Krebs and Johansen reviewed and analyzed the old literature - a total of six studies with 536 patients conducted between 1966 and 1970.

LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) is a hallucinogen that is commonly referred to as "acid". It is manufactured from lysergic acid which is made from a fungus (ergotamine tartrate) that grows on rye and other grains. Pure LSD is a white, odourless and slightly bitter crystalline powder. It is very potent- pure LSD the size of a small pill is enough for approximately 3,000 doses.

On the street LSD can be sold as a powder in capsules or tablets. LSD powder may also be sold as miniature powder pellets called "microdots". More often, the LSD crystals are dissolved into liquid which can be sold in small breath freshener droppers or applied to sugar cubes, gelatin squares ("window panes"), gum, candy, cookies or even postage stamps. However, the most common form of LSD, is called "blotters" or "blotter acid"- small squares of LSD-soaked blotting paper (absorbent paper) each containing one individual dose of LSD. Blotters are often printed with colourful illustrations or cartoon characters.

The median dose of LSD used in those trials was 500 mcg.

Analysis showed that those given LSD were significantly less likely to have reported using alcohol at first follow-up than controls (OR 1.96, 95% CI 1.36 to 2.84, P=0.0003).

The powerful hallucinogen LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) has potential as a treatment for alcoholism, according to a retrospective analysis of studies published in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

The study1, by neuroscientist Teri Krebs and clinical psychologist Pål-Ørjan Johansen of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, is the first-ever quantitative meta-analysis of LSD–alcoholism clinical trials. The researchers sifted through thousands of records to collect data from randomized, double-blind trials that compared one dose of LSD to a placebo.