In Reply.— Dr Hoffman's suggestion that one may find many of the visual disturbances that were described in my article1 in non-LSD—using persons is well taken. The diagnosis of the LSD flashback syndrome, like that of epilepsy, is primarily made by carefully obtaining a history. But before drawing such a conclusion, the clinician has the responsibility of excluding the possibility of...
One hundred twenty-three persons with a history of LSD use were studied for the presence of the LSD flashback phenomenon and compared with 40 control subjects. A syndrome emerged that included ten distance visual disturbances. It had lasted for five years in half of the population, was treatable with benzodiazepines, exacerbated by phenothiazines, and precipitated by 19 different stimuli, most...
We studied whether patients hospitalized for LSD psychosis are clinically separable from acute schizophrenics. The family histories, manifest symptoms, premorbid adjustment, and profiles on an extensive test battery were analyzed for 52 LSD psychotics and 29 matched first-break schizophrenics. The LSD patients did not differ from schizophrenics in incidence of psychosis or suicide among the...
It has been reported that the binding of tritiated LSD (at 2 or 4 nm) to frontal cortex is reduced in schizophrenia, a finding that has been interpreted as a reduction in the number of serotonin receptors. The present study, however, reveals in a Scatchard analysis of tritiated LSD binding in frontal cortex in the brains of 13 schizophrenic patients that there was no decrease in binding by...
Recent articles have suggested that muscle biofeedback and transcendental meditation may be useful in treating chronic anxiety. To assess this, we conducted a controlled study comparing muscle biofeedback, transcendental mediation, and relaxation therapy. The study consisted of a six-week baseline period, six weeks of treatment, a six-week posttreatment observation period, and later follow-up....
The excretion of the hallucinogen dimethyltryptamine (DMT) and its precursor N-methyltryptamine (NMT) was studied among 74 recently admitted psychiatric patients and 19 normal persons. Both compounds were detected in 24-hour urine samples from all subjects. Dimethyltryptamine excretion was greatest in schizophrenia, mania, and "other psychosis" and tended to decline as clinical state improved....
To experimentally test the claimed stress-reducing effects of Transcendental Meditation (TM), two stress films were shown to a group of 60 meditators and nonmeditators. Stress response was observed through the use of cognitive and affective measures employing content analysis techniques and self-ratings. The meditators did not show less stress response than the nonmeditators. On several...
Only recently have multiple-drug use studies involving more than heroin and marijuana begun to be reported in the literature. Four of these studies have found evidence that multiple-drug use is a progressive phenomenon, although the particular pattern of multiple-drug use reported in different populations varies somewhat. This study examines the patterns of multiple-drug use reported by a...
The term "psychedelic" applied to "altered states of consciousness" would imply that such subjective anomalies are direct expressions of normal psychological functioning. The anomaly in such experience would depend in the first instance on sensitization to qualities of immediate subjective state. Such sensitization should in itself be considered nonadaptive, cutting off the "intentionality" of...
The initial clinical symptoms of 25 consecutive cases of cannabis psychosis of the paranoid type and 25 consecutive cases of paranoid schizophrenia were studied and compared, in order to delineate features that would enable a differentiation of the two conditions. It was observed that the patients with cannabis psychosis substantially differed in terms of behavioral manifestations. Most of...
The scientific research that has investigated the physiological changes associated with meditation as it is practiced by adherents of Indian Yoga, Transcendental Meditation, and Zen Buddhism has not yielded a thoroughly consistent, easily replicable pattern of responses. The majority of studies show meditation to be a wakeful state accompanied by a lowering of cortical and autonomic arousal....
An extended battery of neuropsychological tests was administered to three groups of college seniors (lysergic acid diethylamide [LSD]/mescaline users; marihuana/hashish users; and controls) who were matched on predrug usage intellectual and personality dimensions. The study was replicated one year later. In the combined-years' analyses, the three groups showed statistically significant...
Several different molecular conformations of psychedelic drugs have been proposed to explain the very similar effects of drugs with markedly divergent chemical structures, such as mescaline andd-lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD). In some of these models, the α-carbon of methoxyamphetamine psychedelics approximates the asymmetric carbon No. 5 of LSD predicting that the (-) "R" isomer of the...
In a descriptive report of observations carried out in an Indian drug addiction clinic, 200 patients with a characteristic, transient, and acute drug psychosis were observed following the use of cannabis preparations. Of the patients, 45% had no previous psychopathology. Most patients fully recovered. Among those with the most severe preexisting pathology some patients had a less favorable...
An understanding of the relationship of consciousness to brain is integral to the development of a general theory for psychiatry. It is argued that objections to Feigl's psychoneural identity thesis can be countered by considering consciousness as identical with "pure events" which, to an observer, are neurally embodied. Consciousness may be subdivided into phenomenal contents and the conscious...
An argument in support of introspective methods in research is developed. As illustration, the perception of "empty space" is considered on the identity thesis, especially as reported by adepts in altered states of consciousness. It is suggested that the unique sensory qualia—seeing per se, hearing per se, etc, in contrast to the content of seeing and hearing—are a function of unique processing...
A controlled investigation was made of the rehabilitative efficacy of brief residential psychedelic (LSD) psychotherapy with chronic heroin abusers. Seventy-eight volunteer addict inmates from Maryland correctional institutions were randomly assigned to the following: a treatment condition–psychedlic therapy (incorporating one high-dose LSD administration) during a six weeks residence in a...
Eight "stable" and four "variable" college-age subjects were given 160μg/kg psilocybin under conditions of sensory attenuation. Stability was defined by the magnitude of the standard deviation on handwriting area under predrug conditions. Only the variable subjects, our large-standard deviants, responded to the drug with a significant decrease in mean pulse rate and increase in handwriting...
A follow-up survey of 247 persons who received d-lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) in either an experimental (nonmedical) or Psychotherapeutic setting was made to determine the lasting effects, if any, related to use of the drug. Information was collected from each by a structured interview and self-administered questionnaire. Some subsequent nonmedical use of LSD was reported by 23%, who...
DOET (2,5-dimethoxy-4-ethylamphetamine) is a new psychotropic agent which chemically resembles mescaline and amphetamine. It is essentially the ethyl homologue of DOM (2,5-dimethoxy-4-methylamphetamine), a psychotomimetic drug widely used by hippie populations and designated "STP." DOET was administered to normal male subjects in doses ranging from 0.75 to 4 mg and contrasted with effects of a...
TWO animal experiments have indicated that relatively large doses of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) can produce changes in central nervous system (CNS) function which persist for periods of time considerably longer than are usually estimated as necessary for drug detoxication. Adey1reports cats given a single dose of LSD in amounts of 80µg/kg showed disruption of conditioned responses and...
The history of the use of LSD in medicine follows the usual pattern for a new drug: first, speculation on its use and mechanisms following preliminary browsing research; second, exaggerated claims about its value; and third, carefully controlled trials. This book is the first in what will undoubtedly be a long list of reports on the latter category. It is important for its virtues as well as...
WHILE SCIENTISTS may debate the appropriate use of hallucinogens, history records our unceasing urge to cope with dreary reality or dread with the aid of magic, drugs, drama, festival rites, and (with biological regularity) through dreams. The need to transcend limits also finds a voice in utopian ideologies-be they of the inner world, of this, or the next; the promise of omnipotent mastery is...
THIS IS A report of a study designed to measure personality, attitude, value, interest, and performance changes resulting from the administration of LSD to normals. Several investigators using LSD with humans in nontherapy experiments have observed that some of their subjects report various lasting effects attributable to the drug experience. 1,2 In addition, the recent controversy over the...
This book represents the proceedings of a study week at the Pontifical Academy of Science in Rome, from Sept 28 to Oct 4, 1964. Sir John Eccles, Nobel Prize winner in Physiology and Medicine in 1963, undertook the responsibility of organizing the symposium, which included representatives of the various neurological sciences, and of editing the volume of proceedings. Following the Laurentian...