Drug info - LSD can help alcoholics quit

[Pinkavvy]

http://www.metro.co.uk/home/article....page_id=1&ct=5

LSD can help alcoholics quit drink
Monday, October 9, 2006 LSD may be better known as the trippy recreational drug of the 60s and 70s, but long lost medical trials reveal it could cure alcoholism.

A trial 40 years ago, involving thousands of alcoholics, helped 60 per cent quit drinking.

During the study, lasting more than ten years, participants were given just one dose and none reported any side effects.

Unfortunately, by the time the researchers were ready to get the drug licensed, it had already started to get a reputation for abuse.

But scientists at Harvard University are now planning to carry out new research with the drug.

The original research was by British psychiatrist Humphrey Osmond – the first person to use the word psychedelic – and had been gathering dust in a Canadian university.

Researcher Dr Erika Dyck said: 'I was amazed that this data had been just lying around for so long without being examined.'

Osmond went to Canada in the 1950s after becoming disillusioned with the way British psychiatry was practised.

He became head of a mental hospital and started his LSD experiments in 1953.

Some of the patients received the drug, while a control group received standard psychological therapy.

The LSD group received a massive 'hit' – up to 100 times more powerful than people using it for recreational purposes.

The drug put patients into a state known as the DTs – Delerium Tremens. If alcoholics reach this state they start to shake and become very ill, prompting many to turn the corner and give up.

Those in the trial reported suffering a milder version of the DTs which was followed by a desire to quit drinking.

[Forthesevenlakes]

if SWIM had his way, ibogaine would be used for this purpose, too.

[Nagognog2]

The LSD - alcohol research was tainted in Canada by the CIA using alcoholics as test subjects for what is now known as Project MKULTRA. As such, it would really have to start over from scratch. The initial tests and work was done as follows:

The subject needed to wish to stop drinking alcohol. The large dose, up to 1,000 mcg (1 milligram) was administered. The person did not go into the DT's as stated above. Rather the person MIGHT experience "Hellish visions" and were told that this was what awaited them if they did not follow through with stopping the drink. It was a very 1950's code of morals and ethics that were used. But then the USA's CIA moved into Canada and screwed up what we, today, would consider screwed up to begin with.

If Harvard wishes to experiment with LSD again, likely at their McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts, they will have to start with a fresh slate and not rely on the text from the 1950's if they wish to get useful knowledge from such.

That's my studied opinion, having reviewed the "just lying around" data from years back. However I wonder...who will they get to make them a batch of acid? LOL.

[allyourbase]

didnt leary do a similar study involving cocaine addicts and mushrooms?

[big-lester]

so they give someone who is an alcoholic and wishes to quit but can't a huge dose of acid, so that the person goes into the "trip" with that addiction problem on his mind. in the trip that problem is all he can think about, which makes him feel terrible about it, the person is confronted with himself and what he is doing to himself (and maybe to people around him), possibly making the experience HELL on earth, and when the acid wears off the person is left emotionally fucked thinking about how stupid and nasty that addiction is, scared out of his mind from the trip. and now the person feels so horrible about the addiction that he HAS to quit drinking.

isn't that what happens to the person receiving this therapy, or did i get this wrong?

[stoneinfocus]

DT is a very serious health condition when the body is reacting to the missisng alcohol.

This article is much too shallow to give any insides on how this had happened and worked.

The "white room" method sound like a fairy tale but could be true... never trust anybody who survived the 50s.

Would it be too bad if LSD would help alcoholics quitting or controlling it, if it was just taken without horror-visions and DT and at a recreational dose, maybe even more than once if being well tolerated by the people? -I guess for the educated and
conservative medic and medical society ... yes.

[dip]

Originally Posted by Nagognog2

The LSD - alcohol research was tainted in Canada by the CIA using alcoholics as test subjects for what is now known as Project MKULTRA. As such, it would really have to start over from scratch. The initial tests and work was done as follows:

The subject needed to wish to stop drinking alcohol. The large dose, up to 1,000 mcg (1 milligram) was administered. The person did not go into the DT's as stated above. Rather the person MIGHT experience "Hellish visions" and were told that this was what awaited them if they did not follow through with stopping the drink. It was a very 1950's code of morals and ethics that were used. But then the USA's CIA moved into Canada and screwed up what we, today, would consider screwed up to begin with.

If Harvard wishes to experiment with LSD again, likely at their McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts, they will have to start with a fresh slate and not rely on the text from the 1950's if they wish to get useful knowledge from such.

That's my studied opinion, having reviewed the "just lying around" data from years back. However I wonder...who will they get to make them a batch of acid? LOL.

That's an interesting way to blind the human mind, almost like a form of brainwashing, don't ya think? - But still (of course) a worthy method to assist in helping the alcoholics quit.

[Forthesevenlakes]

Its not really brainwashing. Keep in mind the alcoholic WANTS to quit and is a volunteer subject for this study. the results of the MK-ULTRA program showed that there was no way to make LSD a reliable brainwashing drug or truth serum. Yes, it can cause powerful changes in the human mind, and its wonderful that its being put to a therapeutic use. But it does not blind the alcoholic, SWIM thinks, so much as it forces them to confront uncomfortable truths about their own alcoholism: factors that lead them to drink, why they keep perpetuating drinking, the negative consequences of drinking that they'd ordinarily ignore, etc. This can definitely be a harsh and frightening experience for many. But after dealing with these truths coming out, it just may be the impetus they need to stop!

[stoneinfocus]

this is a way too naive approach to the thinking and human´s mind and everything tells me that this kind of conditioning will never ever work.

If it says it does, then this opinion is plain fake, ´cause the human mind is meant to be free and trying to force it into a direction with a not of the minds self evaluated opinion or system is futile and will only cause the opposite: reluctance and leeway thinking and action maybe a littel bit of asslicking authorities asses.

LSD helps in a much more decent and elegant way and one is able to learn of the trips experience a whole year long, when he reviews what happend during this session, and there ain´t any useful assistance despite art and non-scientific expressions of others who experienced the same.

Dependence rehab is nothing that happens over night or a week just because you or a judge/society says you should stop now and it should happen...
damn, I think nearly every smoker who sayas he´d like to quit in fact really wants to smoke and is just adapting to the public meaning or likes to just stop an unconvenient part of his habitute but not all of it -if he really wanted to stop a smoker will stop smoking, it´s that easy... everyone who tells different is bullshitting.(which maybe is an inadaequate comprehension when it comes to real hardcore cold turkey in soem dependences, but that´s not really the point, we have the means to get over those symptoms if one is willing to)

LSD may make a profund change to the emotional state of the actual situation and the way of thinking about things in general and in personal, which is great ... I think, due to the fact that some filters and fuses during the trip are not active anymore you´re forced to cope woth the enviroments signals how they really are and even in regions of the brain that are not supposed to cope with these signals are in charge of processing them the best way they can do... like being forced to run from a tiger and then the next time you´re body(mind ie of the LSD trip) adapts to it, because of being forced to survive and maybe even finding new strategies by oneself in the back of ones mind making a better humand to react to this situation.

[big-lester]

Originally Posted by co-incidence

damn, I think nearly every smoker who sayas he´d like to quit in fact really wants to smoke and is just adapting to the public meaning or likes to just stop an unconvenient part of his habitute but not all of it -if he really wanted to stop a smoker will stop smoking, it´s that easy... everyone who tells different is bullshitting.

obviously you are not a smoker, or you are a smoker who doesn't know the dangers/nasty side effects smoking causes. i don't think it has anything to do about addapting to society, and anyway, this would be something a large part of the society would be right about. because smoking is one of the stupidest things one can do, and it's really nasty in a lot of different ways beside that.

quitting smoking is very fucking hard, but your brain is manipulated by the damn evil tobacco, if one can see through the excuses the tobacco makes your brain produce, and if one really sees how fucking stupid it is, then maybe he/she can quit. people do want to quit, but it just doesn't 'happen'. people try and try and fail and fail. they WANT to, but it just doesn't happen.


(sorry for off-topic)

[Forthesevenlakes]

big-lester, you already summed it up very well. co-incidence, perhaps you are unaware that nicotine is physically addictive. Habitual smokers go through very unpleasant withdrawals, and have a psychological need for the act of smoking, as well. Addiction has nothing to do with weakness or willpower, it is a real physical condition. Same goes for alcohol. Shocking mental events like the ingestion of LSD can help break this cycle...SWIM is guessing that LSD might have some NMDA antagonist activity that could lead to this, but he's not entirely sure.

[stoneinfocus]

Swim and I quit smoking and we were heavy pot and cigarette smokers.
It was easy once you evaluated the science behind the addiction and a plan fot getting out of it .. nicotine-withdrawl lasts 2 hours which is the physical part.. after 2 hours every parameters like dopamine etc. the nicotine had influence on, are back to normal.

Addiction is both the physical addiction that might occure due to tolerance to the substance and physical crawings and the matrix of habits in using and misusing/overusing a substance.

LSD is not a substance that´s habit forming or even posseses the ability to be used often due to tolerance /inactivity, nor is it really recreational, it´s very demanding and giving in return, it´s not like I drink a lot and if it´s getting worse I drink even more or shot more .... it´s like life really is, beyond the humans mind, which is the nature of the drug, introduce by the drug into the mind.

[dip]

True, the alcoholic participating wants to quit.
But the person experiencing a hellish vision is told "this was what awaited them if they did not follow through with stopping the drink." This is not true, although the indivial does returns to reality with a new perspective on life. But this afterglow wears off, and the concious mind knows it was affected by a drug. It figures out the delusion was not real, and doesn't fully trasmit it to reality.


Just a theory, SWIM thinks LSD only gives a temporary boost to aid in the psychological willpower to fight the physical addiction. This willpower seems more like a fake delusion, and it does wear off. Another session may be required to give a further boost, and distract the mind by basically blinding it. The same brain triggers are hit: experiencing hell; experiecing a delusional hell. But the concious mind recovers, with a new perspective but also realizes it was caused by a drug.

SWIM can't contest with evidence nor backup any of this, it's just a far-off theory. SWIM's not defying any proof regarding LSD breaking addiction, and believes strongly in therapy involving psychedelics.

An alcoholic's memories and realization of his actions would play a role in "breaking the cycle." But the mind still knows it was caused by a drug, it wasn't reality, this is reality, and the experience might lose it's meaning.

Someone can recieve megalomania, and believe he is all powerful, and when the drug wears off there is an afterglow of greatness. But this person could be nothing but a bum and would later realize the fact.

[Nagognog2]

Do remember that this research was done 40 - 50 years ago. I rather doubt current Harvard researchers/therapists would use this old data as a template for their new research. That would be like diagnosing post-partum disorder in women as "Female Hysteria" and committing homosexuals for "Perversion" and prescribing forced lobotomies. Amongst other treats from the old textbooks of the era.

[Jatelka]

And for historical interest: Here's something...

http://www.drugs-forum.com/forum/loc...=1069&catid=32