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Single dose of clinical-grade LSD provides immediate and lasting relief from anxiety, wins approval for phase III trials
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- Title
- Single dose of LSD provides immediate, lasting anxiety relief, study says | CNN
- Published
- Mar 7 2024
I don't wanna rain on anyone's parade, but I would like to say that, as is the case with any substance, contraindications to psychedelics do exist. Talk to your doctor.
So theoretically you could pretty easily self-medicate for Anxiety right?
To be completely fair, this trail is in individuals who are clinically diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder, which means they are going to have been diagnosed through some form of therapy under which they have already been treated in some form. They likely already have learned the ability to recognize their anxiety, look for triggers, and work with coping mechanisms.
It's also a phase 2 trial, which is usually a relatively very small trial group, but is looking at efficacy. It does not actually compare to current standards of treatment, although the article linked does contain anecdotes doing this.
I just want to caution again the idea that dropping acid is going to make it so you couldn't possibly be living with an anxiety disorder. There's also the modern day risk of fentanyl lacing in any street drugs, though I'm not certain if there has been evidence of that in LSD. Just things to bear in mind, enjoy yourselves safely out there.
LSD is fairly safe from being laced with fentanyl because LSD itself is so cheap and easy to mass produce. LSD is more likely to actually be a “research chemical” that is very similar to LSD, but tweaked slightly to be technically legal.
I went searching for answers to my problems with LSD when I was younger, and it was helpful for a little while, but then ended up being detrimental to my mental health. (I’m doing just fine now, so if you or anyone else is just getting off a drug, it will most likely get better.)
I suppose it may be like any drug where metered administration by a doctor based on years of research can produce beneficial results, but self medication can often end up producing negative results.
Too much acid or any serotogenic drug burns out your serotonin receptors and you feel really really terrible for a while. it goes away after a few weeks but it is NOT a fun time.
Be responsible with your usage and know the symptoms of serotonin syndrome and of very depleted serotonin and be careful. You only get one brain, take care of it.
Serotonin syndrome is a serious concern for any drug that stimulates the release of serotonin. Of note, LSD binds directly to serotonin receptors and does not stimulate the release of serotonin in any fashion. Because of this serotonin syndrome is not a concern with LSD when it is taken in isolation. However, polydrug use with LSD is certainly not uncommon, and in these cases serotonin syndrome can be a legitimate concern.
yeah, I don't mean that the acid will cause this on its own, but someone with an anxiety disorder is likely to be on some other drugs too so it is good to keep it in mind.
And to be clear, if you take psychedelics responsibly (with reasonable breaks) they are very very unlikely to cause you physical harm. Of all the drug classes they are the least addictive and least likely to cause physical harm.
However, these are drugs that alter perception significantly, and often change thought patterns permanently. The way that these drugs can alter your mind should not be taken lightly. They are very fun when taken responsibly and can improve your quality of life, but I've known many people who had a little too much fun on psychedelics and went a little wacky. They're fun drugs; just don't let their seemingly benign side effect profile fool you, you absolutely can use psychedelics irresponsibly.
I'm not sure what you mean by "physical harm" here. You are correct that psychedelics are not considered addictive substances. That is to say, in traditional rat addiction models (if you're unfamiliar with the famous rat park study, check out that link), rats do not compulsively self administer 'classic' hallucinogens such as LSD. In fact, most hallucinogens do not register as any more than statistical noise when compared to say, self administration of any other substance which is non-addictive.
With regards to the danger of harm, it gets a lot more complicated. There are no physical withdrawal symptoms with hallucinogens and they are not toxic. Compared to drugs like alcohol, there's no physical damage to either the body (such as the liver) or the brain. Hallucinogens do act on receptors in the brain, and can effect the balance of neurotransmitters as well as how many receptors are present, but that really depends on both the drug and the dose.
Of particular note to hallucinogens, however, is their propensity to accelerate or trigger psychiatric problems. A well known contraindication to using any psychedelic is the presence of schizophrenia. In general it is advised to be cautious around psychedelics if you have major psychiatric disorders and most folks would caution against their use at all if you don't feel like you're in a stable mental space.
It is common for people who have a panic response while on psychedelics to also have underlying stressors in their life that they are not addressing, or have not addressed yet. And this is a really hard thing to accept. The benefit to mental health only occurs in conjunction with self work. It's not something that can heal you just by taking it, it is a tool that has to be consciously and intentionally worked with. If you are just taking it for fun or to party or to have a weird time, that is not where the benefit lies. Therapy, introspection, attention to thought patterns.. it's a very intentional thing. Many people have panic because they are not prepared for what they uncover. They don't understand the panic's relationship to something real in their life, because they may not have looked at it before, and suddenly there is a flashlight shining on it. It is harder to compartmentalize things on acid. Psychedelics can have an effect of sort of removing lies that you tell yourself...making it harder to accept things you know aren't quire right... literally you may become aware of connections/relationships you didn't see before. if you are in a relationship with problems you've swept under the rug, have a job you want to quit, a bad habit you feel like is harmful but do anyway.... basically anything that can cause you to feel cognitive dissonance. That's why people say it's important to set an intention before you trip, so your mind doesn't surprise you by shining a light on something you weren't ready to look at. This is just my anecdotal experience as a person with a history of panic attacks. Panic has a correlation to something in your life that you feel, on some level, to be wrong. The instinct is to try to soothe yourself and wait for it to pass, but if you are able to sit in that feeling and think about what that fear is asking you to do, it can be positively transformative. There is a great book called Self Therapy that has techniques for how to ask yourself helpful questions in those moments so you can connect with the parts of yourself that are feeling awful instead of trying to exile them. That panic is a phone call from inside the house.
We have strong evidence for correlation. We do not have strong evidence for causation, but I do believe that we have strong evidence for theoretical models of causation. You are correct to draw this distinction, but I do think it's important to note that it's generally accepted that stress factors accelerate and trigger mental illnesses. I don't think it's a large leap to consider that a drug which alters the way you think could easily serve as a stress factor and I think if you ask anyone about their experiences on psychedelics that they would likely agree that they found themselves, at least at times, struggling with anxiety or otherwise being unable to center themselves mentally in the same ways they can when they are not on drugs.
I have a degree in neurobiology and I find drugs a fascinating field of study. While I have personally used a lot of psychedelics for my own therapy and enjoyment, I like to advise strong caution to others when pursing these drugs because I also believe that these drugs are often not treated with the respect they deserve. These can be fun, they can be positive, and they can be life changing... but they also just as easily can be really tough experiences involving thought spirals, anxiety, dysphoria, and can have medium to long term lasting effects on the brain. I appreciate your voice, and others, which advise caution and help to counter the narrative that drugs are all fun and happiness and sunshine and flowers.
A bad trip can put you back on square one. Even with low doses—since maybe you just happen to induce panic by accident while more emotionally malleable. You need a reliable tripsitter.
Understated. My family member works with someone who was married to a 48 yr old emergency physician who was hoping to use currently unapproved drugs in his practice, moving into alternative treatments for things like PTSD. By all accounts a really good guy with a huge heart for helping others in his community. I dont know if it was LSD for sure, thats the rumor, but he was experimenting with dosing and in a deluded state, ran out of his condo off a balcony and killed himself. He had a tripsitter but his action was too quick to stop. Very shocking for the family.
I have a strong feeling that this is an urban myth popularized since the failure of the DARE days, nearly everyone (my mother included) knows someone, or someone who knew someone, that got high and jumped off their balcony, or thought there was a fire and jumped from their 2+ story window killing themselves.
I have yet to hear from anyone that their brother, or direct family member, or friend did that and it was undeniable. I'm not saying it hasn't (or that you're wrong) but I'm fairly certain it boils down to an urban myth.
This one is real. The dead doctor's wife works with my family member so they heard it directly from her. The obituary doesnt give the cause of death, just that it happened tragically and unexpectedly. The family was pretty devastated and there's no reason to believe they'd make something like that up since they obviously loved him and this didn't exactly cast him in a good light.
Acid doesn't really do that, but magic mushrooms have been known to kill people in this manner. It's part of the reason you're no longer able to buy shrooms in smart shops in Amsterdam. Truffles are still sold though.
Can we please not spread misinformation on the internet?
If you're interested in understanding the neurobiology of how hallucinogens are different, here are a few open access papers on this very subject. 1 2 3
There's a big difference between the therapeutic effect and the pharmacological perspective. I think I better understand what you were trying to say. I'm not sure I fully agree, but I think that's a reflection of the sum of information we have about psychedelics, therapy, and the combination of the two at this point in time.
I think it's dismissive to say that 5HT-2 agonism is the only important receptor activation. I understand where this framing comes from, the so-called 'classic psychedelics' were classified primarily by agonistic effects on this particular serotonin receptor class which is heavily involved in vision. However, many psychedelics have been classified since, including ones which have no effect on 5HT-2 receptors. As noted in the image I linked, there are a lot of 5HT receptors which both LSD and psilocin effect (not to mention affinities for other NT receptors), but that is not the whole picture. Furthermore, the receptor affinity profile only tells you part of the story.
In order to fully understand what's going on in the brain we need to consider the pre and post synaptic cleft, the pre/post synaptic receptor as a system, the effects on an intracellular level, all of the actions of the metabolites, receptor subtypes, as well as any other signaling pathways that might be activated (such as gpcr). I don't think it's fair to minimize the effects down to agonism on a single receptor type (or subtype) as that doesn't address the mechanism by which it agonizes and ignores the agonistic and antagonistic effects it has on other receptors. Of particular note with LSD and psilocin, one does not effect intrasynaptic levels of serotonin whereas the other does and that absolutely is an important distinction when it comes to both serotonin syndrome as well as the effects it has on the brain.
Purely through the lens of therapeutic effect, it gets a lot more hazy as the process of therapeutic psychedelic intervention is a gigantic process with many steps. In fact, there's even emerging literature which has shown that doing all the steps with a vastly different drug (not just substituting mushrooms for mdma or ketamine, but even when it's done with placebo) can have a very similar therapeutic effect and isolating how much the drug is contributing to that versus the entire process of a very structured set of sessions with a therapist may constitute for a large portion of the therapeutic efficacy.
Agree that a tripsitter is so important, but equally important is testing what you bought. Acid doesn't cause psychosis in an otherwise mentally healthy person (but people with psychiatric disorders may experience it). The danger is usually from other compounds being sold as LSD when they are in fact something else. I think the dangerous current one is called 25i. If you go into psychosis, a trip sitter won't really be able help you. Like they can help you through a panic attack but not full on psychotic break. It is too easy to be sold something mysterious and have no idea... It's good to stock up on test kits! Test everything, even if you trust your source. There is so much to lose by taking the wrong drug :( Dancesafe.org is a good resource.
Cannot imagine feeling responsible for something like that. Have to imagine it ate the poor person up thinking about what they did wrong/could have done differently. Plus you now have to deal with a police investigation into the death and worry about all that…
It’s nightmare fuel.
I work with college students and every year there's a bad trip situation - sometimes it's relatively chill (bit paranoid, thought he was going to die, could only tell me he took "200 units" which neither myself nor the paramedics, nor the police could parse into actual dosage), but sometimes it's the running around naked in the winter screaming obscenities sort and that's not great for anyone involved.
Obviously I have no idea at the time what contraindications they may have or what else they may have imbibed, but I also don't know how many folks have perfectly fine trips that don't result in me or my colleagues responding with paramedics.
I suspect it's also got something to do with how experienced someone is with their drugs. Even on just simple plain cannabis, the lowering of the blood pressure and the faster beating of the heart can cause some people to go full panic mode thinking they are having a heart attack. There are also some people for whom the typical mild cannabis paranoia is a real problem. Drugs hit everyone differently.
Having tripped twice myself (mushies, 2g first time, 7.28g second time) I can say that this is not your typical drug. It's much stronger, much longer lasting, and there are no easy off ramps. If you are the sort of person who is relatively well rounded, not easy to phase, comfortable and self-actualized inside your own mental head-space, you'll do alright, though the time dilation will freak anyone out a bit until they get used to it.
Personally I find it's easier to ditch the clocks, have no expectations or obligations - a clear schedule for the day of the trip and the day after. The last thing you'd want to do is trip while under pressure of any kind. The drug may amplify it rather suddenly when you think of that source of worry while tripping and make you panic about that term paper you've been neglecting - that's kinda what makes it so powerful. It blasts through internal filters effortlessly, making emotions harder to suppress, if you can suppress them at all. It sucks if you're in a bad situation, but it's great if you're spending an afternoon with your significant other - it goes both ways. You can control it, and afterwards it's not even a big deal, but learning that control and getting used to it takes time, won't be done in one trip.
I had a blast both times and it obliterated my bad mojo for weeks afterwards. For me it was more like vitamins than drugs, if that makes sense. I'd definitely sign up for micro-dosing. Don't like the physical effects very much, won't miss them, don't need to trip. I have aphantasia so I get no hallucinations anyway, not that I imagine they'd be something I'd even want to see in the first place. I would however like to reclaim my optimism and drive on a more permanent basis. :)
If you're the sort of person who has outbursts, be they panic attacks or fits of rage or any other uncontrollable behaviors or emotions or thoughts, psychedelics can bring them out and crank them up to fifteen. That's best done in a clinical setting, not at a party. They will help cure them, but they also trigger them, it's part of the process. I guess you could look at it as the most severe triggering of whatever's bothering you that you'll ever experience - and likely the last time you ever get triggered by it again.
The drug is basically going to make you twelve years old again for six to eight straight hours. Same toddler attention span, same tendency for outbursts, and every sensation unfiltered like it's the first time. This is why trip buddies are so important - twelve year olds do a lot of stupid things, and so might you, especially if you're in a bad space. This drug requires adult supervision to be safe.
It's why I'd really rather my college students didn't experiment with it.
I don't partake myself, so I appreciate your experiences but have no use for the advice. My students will get transported to the hospital if they're having a bad trip.
Yes, although a professionally guided trip would be ideal.
The study featured in the article was done without psychotherapeutic assistance. They had someone observing incase there was a need for intervention but generally "they spend most of their time just reading." This MM120 compound also didn't show evidence of bad trips.
Lysergide d-tartrate is simply a salt of LSD, MM120 refers specifically to MindMed's product. There's nothing unique to the compound that would reduce the likelihood of a bad trip.
They explain in the article that they believe this could be, but can't confirm without more testing, that there weren't any 'bad trips' from not having any contaminants that are likely found in 'steet' versions versus their clinical grade production and that bad trips may be due to improper handling, production, or similar activities.
Edit: I doubt this statement, but it is something potentially plausible. It could equally be that the users were in a secure environment, and that negates a lot of the negative feelings people have especially while peaking.
A cursory search on DrugsData shows that "street" LSD is actually fairly clean in terms of contaminants. The degradation described in the article generally reduces the effective dose rather than producing unsavory compounds. Historically, high quality LSD used to be readily accessible and still bad trips happened. One issue with LSD is that folks may sell "LSD" but it is actually another chem. Depending on the chem, this can be harmless with no notable differences or can be an entirely different substance. The latter situation could trigger a bad trip, but can be avoided with appropriate testing that can easily and cheaply be done from home.
Mindset, setting, and dose are all major factors in how well a trip goes. Most of the bad trips I've observed or read about were a result of one of those three things being off. A typical tab of street acid is ~100-150mcg, but it isn't uncommon for folks to take multiple tabs, so 2 tabs may very well go beyond the doses served here. Further, phase 2 trials are fairly limited in number of participants, so they were able to filter for folks with a more stable mindset and in a clinical setting they can control much of what the setting looks like as well.
Their claim is basically like saying that you won't have a bad time drinking ethanol because it's cleaner than whiskey.
That’s marketing speech. The psychedelic experience is inherently overwhelming and highly dependent on the individual, their mental state and the setting. Even the listed adverse effects in the study include illusions, hallucinations and abnormal thinking. Which to be fair is kind of par for the course with LSD, but it’s terribly naive to posit that an experience which regularly produces such symptoms could not be perceived as intimidating or negative by susceptible individuals simply because the product is chemically pure.
The potential for a bad trip is built into the psychedelic experience. It appears to work at least in part by temporarily deregulating parts of the brain that control information flow, letting parts of the brain that usually don’t talk to each other directly do so. That’s extremely powerful and can lead people to make psychological breakthroughs - but it can also lead to the wrong wires connecting and giving a bad experience.
I’m very positive to psychedelic therapy and I’ve tried lsd multiple times. But I’m skeptical of anyone who tries to present it as essentially risk free - even if a bad trip isn’t necessarily going to do any long term harm, it’s definitely very unpleasant in the moment and patients should not be misled to think it’s not a possibility with this treatment. They should be able to make informed decisions.
There’s a reason having a sober person present is considered a good practice. They can recognize the signs of a negative turn to the experience taking hold and often halt it in its tracks. While I’m all for more research, I’m very skeptical that administering it with only machines and books for company is the right way to go about it. And if you are going to do that, you should educate patients on all possible outcomes of the experience.
I have no idea how I'd even begin to set that up here in NC haha, I imagine since it's still illegal and probably will be for a long time, it's not something you can just Google.
Well first you need to grow some rye. Then you need to save up for a mass spectrometer…
I'd really love to go to festivals with something like this in hand. I wonder how many years off we are from some version of over the counter psychedelic.
In Vancouver you can go to the store and buy LSD, shrooms of all sorts, DMT, and more. Reasonable pricing, knowledgable staff.
quick edit: one shop has Cyclone pinball, too.
Here in GA you can buy pre-rolled delta-# from a local liquor store or go to a vape shop and buy legal shrooms gummies. Of all states I would've thought GA would be the last. Meanwhile in my home state of northern Ohio you can't, but just over the border to Michigan it's nothing but billboards for weed shops every 30 feet
that is very surprising. This is an older image, but you get the idea -- this is what we can buy https://i.imgur.com/jDnGD6a.jpeg
The other shroom shops are a little cheaper in grams but more expensive with capsules.
This place requires a 'membership' which is just a card with your name on it that you keep in your phone, but the others do not. I've only been asked for the membership once so far, though.
Good on GA for being ahead of the curve. Decriminalization should be the minimum.
Super envious of Canadians. I, sadly, live in the UK where anything that gives any psychoactive effect is essentially banned https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/psychoactive-substances-bill-2015
its so sad. not sure if you saw it, but this is the menu for one place. Its such a blessing.
What about growing them yourself?
Damn that's a menu!
There used to be a loophole where you could grow magic fungus rather than mushrooms but again all closed with that law. I'd love to have a go at it myself but I doubt any reputable business will even attempt to import it especially now the new post brexit rules have come in and everything has to be checked. I'll just have to make do with the illegal plants I already grow lol
ha nice! the whole thing is so silly. Eventually all of this stuff will be legal or at least decriminalized. Its a slow process, though
Depending on where you are in the country, 10 years to 100 haha
Lol, thankfully I'm north of you so we're playing a different ball game up here.
Oakland is already there, lol. I am half joking.. but you can go to open air "flea markets" in parts of california and purchase psychedelics easily and without being arrested. Not over the counter yet, but feels like it's getting close. I bet Oregon will do it first.
I'm in Canada where we've got the weed thing sorted (not necessarily my bag) but I look forward to some more market competition with party drugs.
Kinda hard to do placebo LSD. I wonder how that affects things. Obviously I will know if I’m taking more than microdosing . At 100mg, that’s legit hallucination territory. At 200 things can start getting pretty hairy.