Scientists study possible health benefits of LSD and ecstacy

[Guest guest]

Growing number of people taking psychedelic drugs to help them cope with

conditions such as chronic anxiety attacks

 

Friday 23 October 2009 18.54 BST

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/oct/23/lsd-ecstacy-health-benefits?CMP=AF\

CYAH

 

A growing number of people are taking LSD and other psychedelic drugs such as

cannabis and ecstasy to help them cope with a variety of conditions including

anorexia nervosa, cluster headaches and chronic anxiety attacks.

 

The emergence of a community that passes the drugs between users on the basis of

friendship, support and need - with money rarely involved - comes amid a

resurgence of research into the possible therapeutic benefits of psychedelics.

This is leading to a growing optimism among those using the drugs that soon they

may be able to obtain medicines based on psychedelics from their doctor, rather

than risk jail for taking illicit drugs.

 

Among those in Britain already using the drugs and hoping for a change in the

way they are viewed is Anna Jones (not her real name), a 35-year-old university

lecturer, who takes LSD once or twice a year. She fears that without an

occasional dose she will go back to the drinking problem she left behind 14

years ago with the help of the banned drug.

 

LSD, the drug synonymous with the 1960s counter-culture, changed her life, she

says. " For me it was the catalyst to give up destructive behaviour - heavy

drinking and smoking. As a student I used to drink two or three bottles of wine,

two or three days a week, because I didn't have many friends and didn't feel

comfortable in my own skin.

 

" Then I took a hit of LSD one day and didn't feel alone any more. It helped me

to see myself differently, increase my self-confidence, lose my desire to drink

or smoke and just feel at one with the world. I haven't touched alcohol or

cigarettes since that day in 1995 and am much happier than before. "

 

Many others are using the drugs to deal with chronic anxiety attacks brought on

by terminal illness such as cancer.

 

Research was carried out in the 1950s and 1960s into psychedelics. In some

places they were even used as a treatment for anxiety, depression and addiction.

But a backlash against LSD - owing to concerns that the powerful hallucinogen

was becoming widespread as a recreational drug, and fear that excessive use

could trigger mental health conditions such as schizophrenia - led to

prohibition of research in the 1970s.

 

Under the 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act it is classified as a Class A, schedule 1

substance - which means not only is LSD considered highly dangerous, but it is

deemed to have no medical research value.

 

Now, though, distinguished academics and highly respected institutions are

looking again at whether LSD and other psychedelics might help patients.

Psychiatrist Dr John Halpern, of Harvard medical school in the US, found that

almost all of 53 people with cluster headaches who illegally took LSD or

psilocybin, the active compound in magic mushrooms, obtained relief from the

searing pain. He and an international team have also begun investigating whether

2-Bromo-LSD, a non-psychedelic version of LSD known as BOL, can help ease the

same condition.

 

Studies into how the drug may be helping such people are also being carried out

in the UK. Amanda Feilding is the director of the Oxford-based Beckley

Foundation, a charitable trust that investigates consciousness, its altered

states and the effects of psychedelics and meditation. She is a key figure in

the revival of scientific interest in psychedelics and expresses her excitement

about the initial findings of two overseas studies with which her foundation is

heavily involved.

 

" One, at the University of California in Berkeley, was the first research into

LSD to get approval from regulators and ethics bodies since the 1970s, " she

said. Those in the study are the first to be allowed to take LSD legally in

decades as part of research into whether it aids creativity. " LSD is a

potentially very valuable substance for human health and happiness. "

 

The other is a Swiss trial in which the drug is give alongside psychotherapy to

people who have a terminal condition to help them cope with the profound anxiety

brought on by impending death. " If you handle LSD with care, it isn't any more

dangerous than other therapies, " said Dr Peter Gasser, the psychiatrist leading

the trial.

 

At Johns Hopkins University in Washington, another trial is examining whether

psilocybin can aid psychotherapy for those with chronic substance addiction who

have not been helped by more conventional treatment.

 

Professor Colin Blakemore, a former chief executive of the Medical Research

Council, said the class-A status of psychedelics such as LSD should not stop

them being explored as potential therapies. " No drug is completely safe, and

that includes medical drugs as well as illegal substances, " he said. " But we

have well-developed and universally respected methods of assessing the balance

of benefit and harm for new medicines.

 

" If there are claims of benefits from substances that are not regulated

medicines - even including illegal drugs - it is important that they should be

tested as thoroughly for efficacy and safety as any new conventional drug. "

 

Past reputations may make it hard to get approval for psychedelic medicines,

according to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency.

 

" The known adverse effect profiles of psychedelic drugs would have to be

considered very carefully in the risk/benefit analysis before the drugs may be

approved for medicinal use, " said a spokeswoman. " These products, if approved,

are likely to be classified as a prescription-only medicine and also likely to

remain on the dangerous drug list, which means that their supply would be

strictly controlled. "