LSD: A cure for headaches?
Filed under: Health
Get your tie-dyed t-shirts ready. The 1960s are making a comeback.
It seems psychedelic drugs like LSD, cannabis and Ecstasy just might really have some medicinal purposes after all. Scientists are looking to these drugs to help sufferers of anorexia nervosa, cluster headaches and chronic anxiety attacks.
One 35-year-old British University lecturer says she relies on biannual doses of LSD to control her drinking problem. She credits LSD with increased self-confidence as well as the ability to stay smoke-free and sober.
Too good to be true?
Critics argue users are merely swapping one drug for another and chalk up the "cure" as nothing more than being too high to feel pain. "As a former drug user, it sounds like an excuse to get high," says former addict Leslie Durkin (whose name has been changed).
But distinguished academics and widely respected institutions are giving drugs like LSD a closer look.
Harvard medical school psychiatrist and researcher Dr. John Halpern discovered that nearly all of the 53 people with cluster headaches who took LSD, or psilocybin, the active compound in those trippy little mushrooms, experienced relief of their symptoms. Now Halpern is researching whether 2-Bromo-LSD, a non-psychedelic version, will produce the same pain-stopping results.
The international appeal
LSD is garnering attention as having medicinal purposes in international arenas, too. Scientists across the pond are exploring the benefits of LSD -- a phrase that warms the hearts of most hippies. And not to be outdone, Swiss researchers are using the drug in combination with psychotherapy to treat terminal patients experiencing end-of-life anxiety. "If you handle LSD with care, it isn't any more dangerous than other therapies," said Dr. Peter Glasser, the psychiatrist leading the Swiss trial.
Nothing new
LSD's purported benefits aren't a new concept. In the 1950s and 1960s, researchers explored possible uses of psychedelics--in some cases using them to treat anxiety, depression, and yes, ironically, addiction. But the mainstream backlash to the hallucinogen put a stop to the research in the more conservative 1970s.
In the U.S., LSD is Schedule 1, according to the Controlled Substances Act of 1970. That makes it illegal to produce, possess or purchase it without a DEA license.
Regardless of its legal status, psychedelics are offering many hope. "I've had cluster headaches for over 10 years. If my doctor prescribed it, I'd certainly be willing to try LSD," says Marina Baldwin, an advocate of legalizing medicinal use of recreational drugs.
Even if LSD and other recreational drugs aren't legalized, scientists are hopeful that what they learn about how LSD works will lead to the development of similar, legal drug therapies.
If your doctor suggested it, would you be willing to try LSD to treat a chronic condition? Do you think certain psychedelics should be legalized?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
10-27-2009 @ 6:59PM
Adrian Bennett said...
Anyone heard of Timothy Leary? These ideas are a rerun from the past. LSD is just plain EVIL. EVIL!!! Leave it alone. It, like the atom bomb, should be uninvented.
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10-28-2009 @ 1:58AM
Rich Rallison said...
I thought I was the only one that found a medical use for psychedelics, good to know there are more out there. I used small quantities fairly frequently for nearly 20 years before Zoloft came along. I have disabling anxiety and depression that will paralyze me without meds and talk therapies, so do about half of my collateral relatives. Some of us opted out with suicide or succumbed to being disabled but I found an occasional full dose of LSD or one of several legal analogues found in foods like nutmeg could reset my operating system. Then small doses, not enough to get me feeling high, could keep excess anxiety at bay, or check it before panic would set in. The chemical structures have similarities. The abuse potential is probably almost as bad as alcohol and tobacco and having said that it (LSD, Zoloft, etc) also cured me of alcoholism and smoking and other forms of self medication that so many of us anxious types try on ourselves. I prefer being legal and drug free at all times, except when the disorder takes over, then anything can and has happened.
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10-29-2009 @ 8:36AM
Sara Bailey said...
To give this a different perspective, imagine that in a parallel universe, Zoloft was one of the happy drugs of the 60's and LSD came to the general public as a drug from the pharmaceuticals. We should be open to the probability that these substances can have positive uses. It's like I've said before, if you only see things in black and white, you're not using your gray matter.
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10-29-2009 @ 11:41AM
Jeff Moore said...
zoloft was not around in the sixties.
11-02-2009 @ 11:56AM
Scooter said...
Sara, in my life I have done both LSD & Zoloft. They are not even close to being the same thing. Apples & Oranges. Your comment is a perfect example of using ALL gray matter and no black & white. It really is OK to say NO to some things. Not everything is alright. Get educated befrore you spout off about something you obviously know nothing about.
11-04-2009 @ 2:41PM
ll said...
ive done lsd at least 100 times, over 10 years ago,..it was a great time of my life ,....some people that have underlying schizophrenia should stay away from it,....as well as some other underlying 'psychotic' symptoms.
my sibling suffers from cluster headaches and if it cures her then so be it ,.....the Govt is hardheaded when it comes to this drug and some others, as it wont make a person violent but sedate them.
I was around crack and heroin addicts for over 10 years watching dealers and a lot of crooked cops get rich (unfortunately i worked in a VERY tough neighborhood in BKLYN NY and i saw the ill and seriously violent effects that those drugs had on the people taking it as well as the whole neighborhood ) ,...BUT should never be confused with psychedelics like lsd,...as no one is looking to do a ton of lsd consecutively day after day ,...lsd is just not addicting like that ,.... if it will cure some then by all means 'the govt needs to control it' and use it for the benefit of mankind not the downfall. were hippies all that bad???? not in my eyes,....i never knew any to steal, rob, or do anything for that matter in a bad negative way ,....if anything they were tree hugers and more into saving the world and not destroy it.
the ONLY reason crack , cocaine, and heroin are around still is because of the money it makes and the greed that infests all who sell it.
lsd is done so seldom that the market is not worth the chance for the 'drug dealers' to make money on ,....because if it was as addicting as the other drugs and 'in demand' Believe me those drug dealers would be selling it.
just my 2 cents
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