LSD helps alcoholics put down the bottle

[Celebration]

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/lifestyle/health_beauty/story.jsp?story=709583

A single dose of the hallucinogenic drug LSD is an effective treatment for alcoholism - according to research led by a British doctor more than 40 years ago.

Studies on thousands of alcoholics treated with the drug in the early 1960s - before it became popular as a psychedelic street drug - showed it helped trigger a change in mental attitude leading drinkers to quit. But, in spite of its promise, the therapeutic potential of the drug has been ignored since it was banned worldwide in the late 1960s as a threat to public safety.

Now a historian who unearthed the research, led by British psychiatrist Humphrey Osmond and carried out in Canada, has interviewed the participants four decades on and says the results are dramatic.

Erika Dyck, professor of the History of Medicine at the University of Alberta, said: "The LSD somehow gave these people experiences that psychologically took them outside of themselves and allowed them to see their own unhealthy behaviour more objectively, and then determine to change it.

"Even interviewing the patients 40 years after their experience, I was surprised at how loyal they were to the doctors who treated them, and how powerful they said the experience was for them - some even felt the experience saved their lives."

[whistle]

1. Total bullshit!

[LSparkle]

2. I heard Cary Grant took LSD under a doctor's supervision in the 60s

May have been to treat a drinking problem (?).

[WCGreen]

9. Did you ever see that Movie... Operation Petticoat....

He was suposedly trippin' the whole time they were shooting that Movie...

[mike_c]

3. well, I've done a lot of acid in my life, and I'm not an alcholic...

...so there you have it! :evilgrin:

[Warpy]

15. I was certainly a whole lot less interested in alcohol

after I tripped. The change in mental attitude was to see what alcohol did TO me rather than for me.

I come from one of "those" families, with relatives on both sides drinking themselves to death.

However I escaped is a good way.

[enough]

4. I believe it.

Wonderful how alcohol is the legal drug of this society, despite the ravages it wreaks and the destruction of countless lives.

While those other paths are criminalized.

[niallmac]

5. Well, I know I wouldn't need cable for a few months. n/t

[MethuenProgressive]

6. Is Foley trippin' in rehab?

[razors edge]

7. A blotter a day,

helps keep sanity away.

[Schema Thing]

8. I can believe this is possible.

Your first trip is a powerful experience.

[greenman3610]

10. American Indian ceremonies sometimes use Peyote to cure

alchoholism.

Tim Leary and Richard Alpert were using LSD on prisoners successfully
in a program that had no negative side effects and demonstrably
reduced recidivism.

They made the mistake of assuming that people
in the wider society could understand how to use the
drug responsibly.
Boneheads have given the psychedelic experience a
bad name.

[tridim]

11. LSD is an interesting substance..

I'm not surprised to hear it has some beneficial effects.

I had a friend in college who had an interesting experience on LSD where he "saw" very detailed schematics of his own skeletal system. I watched him draw what he was seeing and found some medical books to verify the accuracy. He was spot on, and it was obvious that he was really "seeing" the bones and joints he was drawing. Pretty amazing.

I think acid is beneficial in strict moderation. I probably tried it about a dozen times in college, with no regrets. It was the people who did it several times a week that had trouble.

[liberalmuse]

12. This has been known for many years.

There have been studies that show LSD and other hallucinegens actually cure alcoholism and PTSD, when taken in a controlled setting. The studies can easily be googled.

[Warpy]

16. The loal Pueblos report fair success using the Peyote cermony

to treat alcoholism.

[Obsolete]

13. LSD negates alcohol for me

I noticed several times while on LSD that I could drink large amounts of alcohol and not get drunk. My friend and I once drank a fifth of tequila between us while tripping and were no worse for wear.
I have no doubt LSD can be effective against alcoholism.

[Ayesha]

14. There's also ibogaine

Ibogaine is a powerful hallucinogen that breaks addiction to opioid drugs, including heroin. It is said to produce an intense and sometimes disturbing multi-day high. Perhaps LSD would be a safer alternative in some cases.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibogaine

[Quantess]

17. Okay, but, self-medicating doesn't count.

The key is, the drug needs to administered in a controlled setting, not at Burning Man.

[smirkymonkey]

18. Can it do anything for Depression?

The appeal for me of having such an experience is that it helps you get out of the prison of your ego and take a more detached view of reality. I would personally love to participate in an expiriment - I had a few strange trips on mushrooms in college, but I think it would be different now - for one thing, I have been sober for many years.