Safety and Efficacy of Lysergic Acid Diethylamide-Assisted Psychotherapy for Anxiety Associated With Life-threatening Diseases
Peter Gasser, Dominique Holstein, Yvonne Michel, Rick Doblin, Berra Yazar-Klosinski, Torsten Passie, Rudolf Brenneisen
The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease March 4, 2014 DOI: 10.1097/nmd.0000000000000113 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Randomized controlled trial Placebo-controlled Double-blind Open-label Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 12 |
| Population | Patients with anxiety associated with life-threatening diseases |
| Intervention | LSD-assisted psychotherapy |
| Dose | 200 μg of LSD |
| Duration | 2-month follow-up, with sustained effects at 12 months |
| Topics | Anxiety LSD Psychedelic-assisted therapy |
| Keywords | Adverse effect Crossover study Placebo Trait anxiety Randomized controlled trial Psychotherapist Double blind Clinical psychology |
| Citations | 752 |
| Key findings | LSD-assisted psychotherapy reduced trait and state anxiety at 2 months, with effects sustained for 12 months, and no serious adverse events. |
Abstract
A double-blind, randomized, active placebo-controlled pilot study was conducted to examine safety and efficacy of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD)-assisted psychotherapy in 12 patients with anxiety associated with life-threatening diseases. Treatment included drug-free psychotherapy sessions supplemented by two LSD-assisted psychotherapy sessions 2 to 3 weeks apart. The participants received either 200 μg of LSD (n = 8) or 20 μg of LSD with an open-label crossover to 200 μg of LSD after the initial blinded treatment was unmasked (n = 4). At the 2-month follow-up, positive trends were found via the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) in reductions in trait anxiety (p = 0.033) with an effect size of 1.1, and state anxiety was significantly reduced (p = 0.021) with an effect size of 1.2, with no acute or chronic adverse effects persisting beyond 1 day after treatment or treatment-related serious adverse events. STAI reductions were sustained for 12 months. These results indicate that when administered safely in a methodologically rigorous medically supervised psychotherapeutic setting, LSD can reduce anxiety, suggesting that larger controlled studies are warranted.