LSD was accidentally discovered by Albert Hofmann at the Sandoz pharmaceutical company in Switzerland in 1938. It was obviously uselessbut since 1947 it was are commercially available as “a cure for everything from schizophrenia to criminal behavior, ‘sexual perversions’ and alcoholism”. He couldn’t find his place.
Now, over 80 years later, he may finally have found one – other than expanding consciousness, this is. A new study shows that it is particularly effective in treatment generalized anxiety disorder for up to 12 weeks with a single dose. And it’s fast acting.
Generalized anxiety disorder (hereafter simply referred to as “anxiety”) is a mental health condition characterized by excessive worry, fear, and anxiety about everyday situations. It affects about 6% of adults during their lifetime. Treatments include psychotherapy, such as cognitive behavioral therapy, as well as medications, such as antidepressants and benzodiazepines.
Psychotherapy is expensive and takes weeks or months, while drugs must be taken daily for weeks, months or even years. And these can have side effects. Benzodiazepines are very addictivewhile SSRIs (the latest generation of antidepressants) have a variety of side effects including sexual dysfunction.
In addition, there are many anxious patients for whom none of the established drugs work. Clearly, new drugs for anxiety are needed.
A US clinical trial by the biopharmaceutical company MindMed has shown that a form of LSD (lysergide d-tartrate), administered at a relatively low dose, can effectively treat people with anxiety.
Patients were given the drug at 25 µg, 50 µg, 100 µg or 200 µg. This was a phase 2b clinical trial, where different doses of a drug are tested in a group of people with the disease in question. The goal is to find a dose that works while having acceptable side effects. The 100 µg dose was found to be very effective while having only relatively minor side effects.
The study used the Hamilton Anxiety Scale to measure stress levels. The researchers found improvements in anxiety levels within just two days of administering their drug.
Further improvements were seen four and 12 weeks after the study. At 12 weeks, 65% of patients were less anxious, with 48% of patients no longer meeting clinical criteria for anxiety.
The results were so remarkable that the FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION (the agency that approves new medicines in the US) has classified this medicine as ‘new’. This means the FDA will work closely with MindMed during the next phase of human trials (called “phase 3”). Here a larger group is tested, usually up to 3,000 patients.
In phase 3, LSD may also be tested against established anxiety medications to determine if it works as well or possibly even better than those already in clinical use.
Psychedelics have been shown to treat a number of disorders
Previous studies have looked at certain illegal drugs, usually hallucinogens or psychedelics, as treatments for depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and addiction. LSD, ecstasy (MDMA), ketamine, ayahuasca and psilocybin everything seems useful in various mental health conditions.
A single dose of it ketamine can relieve symptoms of depression for up to a week. MindMed’s current study is the first positive single-dose, psychotherapy-free study of LSD for anxiety.
Pictorial Press Ltd/Alamy Stock Photography
It is unbelievable to believe that the America’s War on Drugs that began with Richard Nixon in 1970, and the subsequent difficulties in scientifically examining these illegal drugs, has lasted so long.
Most of these drugs were illegal and scheduled as “no accepted medical use”. Five decades later, we are finally finding clinical uses for these drugs.
The data from the MindMed study has been submitted to a leading scientific journal for peer review, so we shouldn’t get carried away just yet. A phase 3 trial is still needed. However, if one dose of LSD actually works for 12 weeks, then that is truly remarkable. We could be on the verge of a new era of treatments for mental health problems.
Correction: An earlier version of this article gave LSD doses in milligrams. It should have been in micrograms.
