The first applications of mescaline in psychiatry: The case of Madame Louise Françoise R. and its contemporary relevance
Marion Hendrickx, Antoine Dampierre, Emmanuel Drouin
Neuropharmacology October 15, 2025 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropharm.2025.110707 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Historical analysis Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 1 |
| Population | A patient, Madame Louise Françoise R., treated at Sainte-Anne hospital in Paris |
| Interventions | Mescaline Malariotherapy |
| Dose | 20-40 mg |
| Topics | Mescaline |
| Keywords | Ambivalence Perspective graphical Relevance law Intervention counseling Foregrounding Psychoanalysis Psychotherapist Epistemology |
| Citations | 1 |
| Key points | Sub-threshold doses of mescaline (20-40 mg) produced phenomenological observations such as colored visions and depersonalization, but clinical improvement followed subsequent malariotherapy rather than mescaline. |
Abstract
At the beginning of the 20th century, while psychiatric knowledge remained limited, some physicians were already exploring innovative experimental paths. This article presents an unpublished clinical case of a patient, Madame Louise Françoise R., treated with mescaline in 1930 by Henri Claude and Henri Ey at Sainte-Anne in Paris, four years before their official publication on the subject. The original notes, explicitly titled "Experiment - Mescaline", document subcutaneous injections of apparently sub-threshold doses (20-40 mg), far below later recognized effective ranges (250-500 mg). Retrospective analysis suggests that the intent was exploratory rather than curative, using mescaline as a functional probe to observe psychopathological mechanisms. The case also illustrates the ambivalence of French psychiatry at the time: a few days after the mescaline trial, the same patient was subjected to malariotherapy, an archetypal shock therapy. This juxtaposition between minimal dosing and radical intervention highlights the oscillation between microdosing and shock paradigms in early psychopharmacology. The phenomenological observations-coloured visions, depersonalisation, and the formula "mescaline releases but does not create fantasies"-anticipate contemporary models of psychedelic action. Yet the clinical improvement followed febrile therapy rather than mescaline. For contemporary researchers, this case provides historical perspective on microdosing, reminding us that early psychedelic trials were often diagnostic, exploratory, and ethically fragile. It resonates with today's renewed interest in microdosing, while underlining the need for rigor, consent, and ethical safeguards in modern psychedelic research.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on mescaline, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Schizophrenia: A New Approach. II. Result of a Year's Research | 1954 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Thought insertion as a self-disturbance: An integration of predictive coding and phenomenological approaches | 2016 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Entactogens: How the Name for a Novel Class of Psychoactive Agents Originated | 2022 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Steric and Electronic Relationships among Some Hallucinogenic Compounds | 1970 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| EFFECT OF DRUGS One individual | 1952 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | n = 1 |
Citations in the library
Cites 8
- REBUS and the Anarchic Brain: Toward a Unified Model of the Brain Action of Psychedelics Pharmacological Reviews June 20, 2019
- MDMA-assisted therapy for severe PTSD: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase 3 study. Nature Medicine June 1, 2021
- Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) for alcoholism: meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials Journal of Psychopharmacology March 8, 2012
- Prehistoric peyote use: alkaloid analysis and radiocarbon dating of archaeological specimens of Lophophora from Texas. Journal of Ethnopharmacology October 3, 2005
- Psychedelic drugs—a new era in psychiatry? Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience June 30, 2019
and 3 more in the library