LSD helps to treat alcoholism

http://www.nature.com/news/lsd-helps-to-treat-alcoholism-1.10200

by gruseom • 14 years ago

109 107 14 years ago

zcid7• 14 years ago

LSD is also known for it's use in treating migraines (about a 1/4 of a recreational dose is effective). I used to keep a supply for this purpose as I was unable to afford the prescription drugs that provide me relief. Unfortunately, LSD carries such a heavy penalty that I no longer do this and usually just shut myself in a dark room for a day or two when I get migraines. I'm lucky that I get them very rarely as opposed to those that get them monthly or even weekly.

I remember a short blurb in a Cary Grant [auto?]biography about his use of the drug in therapy and how it changed his life and perspective for the better.

It bothers me that a drug like this is so demonized that its possible therapeutic values are almost completely ignored. I know that there are some researchers still doing work in the area, but they are very few due to the huge legal obstacles at the federal levels.

I see this as just one more area where prohibition has harmed us. It's so sad that science has become subject to government after so many hundreds of years working to free it from the yoke of religion.

Edit: BTW, LSD is listed as a Schedule I drug (the most serious according to US law) and is listed with other such threats as MDMA, heroin, and mankind's worst enemy: Marijuana. It also carries a life sentence in federal prison upon a second trafficking offense.

hornd• 14 years ago

What were the/were there any psychedelic effects of the dosage you took? Did you find you could still "function" in day to day life (work, school, etc)?

zcid7• 14 years ago

There weren't any psychedelic effects at that dose for me, but there might be for others. You could try a lower dose, but that became a really tiny piece of paper. I did feel a little slower, and it was slightly more difficult to focus during school. It also had an anti-depressant effect. I am very fortunate that I only get migraines a couple of times a year so the fogginess was never a real issue.

samstave2• 14 years ago

It is demonized as it wakes the user up to the bullshit of the system. If you see the universe in all its natural glory, you flatly reject the idea that you should pay fealty to the faulty systems of corrupt humans.

LSD is illegal because it creates more Humanity in humans, Humanity which is more closely connected with reality.

drewblaisdell4• 14 years ago

This sentiment is so romantic that I almost chose not to reply about how inaccurate it is.

jMyles• 14 years ago

...not sure that's why it's illegal, but I definitely agree with the assessment of the effect.

cageface3• 14 years ago

LSD just tweaks one of the signaling systems in your brain. The resulting experience is highly subjective. I don't think it should be schedule 1 but it can harm some people as much as it helps others.

zcid7• 14 years ago

I could talk for hours about how my internal explorations (sometimes with drugs, often without) have dramatically accelerated my growth. I am very passionate about my change, but I don't really want to start a philosophical debate about the ethics of drug use.

I see this article more focused on the idiocy of and harm done by the Controlled Substance Act of 1970. I am convinced that was a major turning point in the descent of the USA into where we are today politically and socially. It could be argued that the law was a symptom of our society, but there is no doubt that the loss of our rights was greatly accelerated in 1970.

It's not just the USA either. Look at how it has affected policies, wars, violence, scandals, and corruption throughout the world. Look at the violence in Mexico right now: 100% attributable to the War on Drugs. Prohibition failed us in the 1920's and it is failing the world right now.

itmag11• 14 years ago

Upvote because I am also a romantic hippie.

Have you read Prometheus Rising, by any chance?

bdg• 14 years ago

"Benighted fool!" shouted the man from The Fordian Science Monitor, "why don't you take soma?" "Get away!" The Savage shook his fist.

The other retreated a few steps then turned round again. "Evil's an unreality if you take a couple of grammes."

"Kohakwa iyathtokyai!" The tone was menacingly derisive.

"Pain's a delusion."

"Oh, is it?" said the Savage

Daniel_Newby2• 14 years ago

> Unfortunately, LSD carries such a heavy penalty that I no longer do this and usually just shut myself in a dark room for a day or two when I get migraines.

There is a cheap (prescription) drug called ergotamine that tickles brain receptors similar to those affected by LSD.

zcid7• 14 years ago

There are also the triptan class of drugs such as Relpax. The problem is you have to go to a doctor to get a prescription. Doctor visits are expensive (relative to my income for most of my life) unless you have access to a school clinic or you have insurance. Migraine medicines should be OTC. The side effects don't warrant limited access.

dutchbrit• 14 years ago

I've heard that shrooms are also very good for treating migraines.

Misha_B• 14 years ago

Have you heard of possible cure for migraines with a ketogenic diet? Reading your comment I recalled I read this story: http://perfecthealthdiet.com/?p=1543 (also related: http://perfecthealthdiet.com/?p=2921).

rjurney8• 14 years ago

I wonder how many of those alcoholics moved on to psychedelics after treatment :)

You guys are downvoting me, but at the time addiction and alcoholism were considered separate phenomenon. Psychedelics being new, nobody predicted the 1970s and burnt out hippies, thus the study doesn't seem to take into account alcoholics becoming drug addicts.

INTPenis• 14 years ago

Good point if you've grown up around addicts you'll know that it's VERY common for them to simply substitute one drug for another.

In the lucky cases they substitute meth with alcohol, tobacco and coffee but I could totally picture someone going for cannabis, LSD instead of alcohol.

Essentially, it's a psychological thing and it's rarely about the substance itself. LSD is just a replacement for the god experience.

However I'd take this opportunity to recommend the documentary Ibogaine - A rite of passage.

pork• 14 years ago

Not a good point AT ALL. LSD tolerance builds up over absurdly short times. If you take a dose today, and another tomorrow, you'll experience drastically fewer effects. Thus, you never hear of "LSD addicts". There may be other psychological dangers involved for certain individuals, but addiction is not going to be a concern, for purely physiological reasons.

gruseom3• 14 years ago

I don't think it's a good point at all, unless it comes with some evidence. There is so much FUD, wishful thinking, and social harm surrounding this topic that we need to be particularly careful with it.

abibibo• 14 years ago

I see your point with many substances, but to characterize psychedelics as such is to completely misunderstand their effect and misunderstand the reason they may be of benefit in cases of addiction. But, such misunderstanding is understandable. Honestly, the best I can do is to describe the experience is to relate it to a shift in perspective ... like looking at a wire-frame drawing of a cube and mentally flipping which side is nearer. You never can see both frames of reference at the same time.

Even when I experimented with lsd (many years ago), precisely because of this shift I'd never really be able to remember or comprehend what I was getting into--let alone describe it--until I was in it. And when your in it, its seeing without the safety barriers your subconscious has erected. I've heard Buddhists monks relate: its like catching a glimpse of Nirvana without the spiritual work necessary to prepare you for it. Yes, seeing the awesome potential and absolute miracle of consciousness and life can be a truly ecstatic experience. But, being brought face-to-face with your failings and inadequacies before you're ready to see can be equally harrowing.

Towards the end, I was left to realize that although I kept showing up to class the lessons were over. The experience was no longer pleasurable, just disorienting. For most, it eventually becomes obvious that what you're experiencing is only a tired picture and that there is real work still to be done.

itmag11• 14 years ago

What can you tell me about Ibogaine? Mind telling me more? :)

orbitingpluto• 14 years ago

I know this is the type of comment that gets downvoted, but when I first saw the article title I thought, "Isn't that nice of the Mormon church."

jostmey• 14 years ago

Burn the house to kill the termites?

lightcatcher• 14 years ago

Not at all actually. LSD seems to quite a safe drug, and I'm beginning to question why it is illegal. Alcohol on the other hand seems to be much more dangerous.

This graph of active dose to lethal dose ratio and dependence risk serves as a fairly good measure for the risk of various drugs in my opinion: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a5/Drug_dan...

rjurney8• 14 years ago

Temporary insanity is viewed as dangerous. LSD is a particularly harsh substance, so on the scale of psychedelics... I would legalize it right before PCP.

kahawe6• 14 years ago

> quite a safe drug

With drug-induced chronic psychosis a possibility (as with pretty much ALL more potent drugs), I am not sure "quite safe" is exactly the right word, despite the odds...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LSD#Potential_adverse_effects

jdub• 14 years ago

Can't help thinking, "There's a hole in my bucket, dear Liza, dear Liza..." ;-)

sneak• 14 years ago

LSD helps with just about everything.

jwco3• 14 years ago

According to the Wikipedia article on LSD, the US DEA claims that the drug among other things "produces...no lasting positive effect in treating alcoholics."

The TSA chimed in, noting that LSD also produces no safeguard against "things that go BOOM!"

jwco3• 14 years ago

Just to be clear, the first comment was not a joke: "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lysergic_acid_diethylamide#Pote...

rjurney8• 14 years ago

LSD is amazing stuff in that it makes bullshit real, thus expanding the mind's ability to waste time.

rjurney8• 14 years ago

Morphine cured alcohlism in 1817. Cocaine cured morphine addiction in 1884. LSD cured alcoholism in 1960.

Detect the pattern.

rms4• 14 years ago

Increasing amounts of evidence?

gruseom3• 14 years ago

You keep making this point, but it's a straw man. The issue is whether we ought to study these drugs for therapeutic usages, and what such studies find.

Shum• 14 years ago

LSD isn't addictive.

kahawe6• 14 years ago

> LSD isn't addictive.

You could just as much try to claim that WoW, gambling or food aren't "addictive".

munchhausen• 14 years ago

The destructive consequences of alcohol or morphine addiction are in no small regard caused by the fact that it's possible to indulge in the drug daily, and therefore it is easy to completely lose yourself in the cycle of drug use.

This problem does not occur with LSD, since LSD tolerance builds up incredibly fast. It is simply not practical to use it more often than once a week, and even this frequency is unusual with most users, since longer periods of abstinence between trips have a very direct and positive influence on the quality of the experience. Most regular users are very well aware of this, and their usage patterns reflect this fact.

There is no pattern to be found in what you described, since LSD is a dramatically different kind of drug compared to the other two you mentioned.

rjurney8• 14 years ago

Taking acid once a week will do bad things to you. Worse than morphine.

shareme• 14 years ago

Secrets of LSD...

Are you ready for this?

When humans and most mammals give birth the female body produces a drug that produces psychedelic effects as a counter to pain of child birth on the baby.

And guess what? That replay of effects is what we call the illusion of near death experiences that some experience later in life..

Is not the biological machine fascinating? :)

sev• 14 years ago

Just to clarify, the drug is produced to counter the pain that the baby feels or the pain that the mother feels?

Also, I'm very curious about this...is there a source I can read that you know of?

disgruntledphd2• 14 years ago

There's some evidence that ketamine, at least is released in near death experiences. Having taken ketamine twice, this is not something that I wish to happen to me. I wouldn't be surprised if it happened in chidbirth also, but I don't know of any evidence pointing towards that.

http://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar?q=ketamine+and+near+deat...

geoffw83• 14 years ago

Tidbit #2, towards the end of a pregnancy, there is a MASSIVE rush of DMT in the mothers body. They don't really know why, but its suggested that its the "life" or consciousness flowing into the baby.

But yes, the biological machine is beyond fascinating! Mind boggling!

omarchowdhury4• 14 years ago

Citation needed.

jdc• 14 years ago

This is my understanding of the schedule I drugs: they're listed as schedule I because they're not medically usable, and they're not medically usable because they're listed as schedule I.

rms4• 14 years ago

You got it! Except it's a bit confounded because a few of the schedule 1 drugs really, truly aren't medically usable because they are trumped by substances proven to be less harmful.

quattrofan• 14 years ago

So yet another "illegal" drug that could have been improving/saving countless lives for years needlessly prevented from being used by idiot US prohibitionists.

itmag11• 14 years ago

On a similar note, has anyone here had success getting therapeutic effect from MDMA?

rdl2• 14 years ago

There's the MAPS MDMA study.

I'm also personally familiar with several (> 10) people who used MDMA to treat depression (other than PTSD), both independent of conventional psychotherapy and in a few cases in conjunction with it (by telling the doctor after independently dosing; since he's an MD he has a duty to care for the patient even if he's "on an illegal drug" at the time, but isn't at personal legal risk).

I would consider the long-term risks of 1-5 doses of MDMA over a year FAR lower than the side effects of prescribed antidepressants or other psychiatric medications on an ongoing or permanent basis. (I'm not a doctor, though. Just going based on observation of a not statistically significant number in both groups.)

itmag11• 14 years ago

Interesting. What are your thoughts on how to make sure what you're getting is actually MDMA and not rat poison or something? Or is this concern just baseless media hysteria?

sammanual• 14 years ago

heck I'd rather take a 'trip' with one little pill then have to down 3L of anything (outside of Maotai - 375ml's enough)

LSD helps to treat alcoholism

Related Stories