LSD and medicine
| LSD and medicine: first steps |
| At the end of 2007 a researcher from Switzerland, doctor Peter Gasser, was granted permission to deploy LSD as therapy. The title of his research: LSD assisted psychotherapy in persons suffering from anxiety associated with advanced-stage life threatening diseases. This is the first time since 1972 that there has been renewed scientific attention for the medical aspects of LSD. In the USA in 2008 Harvard University launched a project for patients with severe form of headache, cluster headache, using psilocybin (from the magic mushroom) or LSD. At the end of this article we provide an overview of all the LSD research in the world. Albert Hofmann discovered LSD in 1943 and the first decades of research was in the hands of scientists and doctors. LSD helped to develop a new vision on our consciousness and on illnesses such as schizophrenia. This documentary shows how LSD before the western world criminalised it. LSD proved to have a large impact on the personal lives of those who intakes. This documentary in 2008 put on utube is a unique document. Geniouses from the past, such as Aldeous Huxley, took LSD on their deathbed, and Dr Hofmann, the discoverer of LSD, took the last time this substance on the age of 97! (He was 102). |
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Psychedelica, or entheogenen, as these substances are also called, for the medicine of much greater value than we think. Through 40 years to be criminalised, while everyone on the corner or a bottle of spirits can buy, the value of psychology, psychiatry and the transpersoonlijke statements of its wholly outside of our vision to achieve this objective.
Anno 2008 is the time to re-orient us in this area. There are authors who believe that the experience gained by entheogenen or psychedelics arise, even positive effects on the immune system. [1] The baby discarded in the washing water? Refocused on this theme is desperately needed. By listening to the scholars of the first hour, the potential value of these substances again unfiltered clear.
Recently, in any case a study started, and we quote from a letter sent in 2008:
SIR – Your obituary on Albert Hofmann, the inventor of lysergic acid diethylamide, suggested that research into LSD stopped in the 1970s and never resumed (May 10th).
Actually, a protocol evaluating LSD-assisted psychotherapy in people with anxiety related to end-of-life issues was approved in Switzerland last year.
This is the first controlled scientific study of the therapeutic potential of the drug in more than 36 years. Mr. Hofmann spoke about the Swiss approval as "the fulfilment of my heart’s desire."
The first session LSD in that study took place recently.Furthermore, to set the record straight, Mr. Hofmann took LSD for the last time when he was 97 years old. (Experiments with LSD. By: Dobun, Rick, Chief Economist, 00130613, 5 / 31/2008, Vol. 387, Issue 8582)
LSD: the first experiment of Hofmann
Since the first scientist Albert Hofmann, who also took LSD and described, there follows a unique description of his experience, such as that in a relatively unknown magazine was published in 1969.
The synthesis of d-lysergic acid diethylamide, namely the purification and the removal of the inactive isomer, d-isolysergic acid diethylamide, by columnar chromatography.
In the course of this work the author experienced a remarkable but not unpleasant state of intoxication which lasted for 2-3 hours and was characterised by extraordinarily intense stimulation of the imagination and an altered awareness of the world around him. On closing his eyes he saw a succession of fantastic, rapidly changing images of a striking reality and depth, alternating with a vivid, kaleidoscopic play of colours.
The nature and course of this condition gave reason to suspect that it might have been due to a trace of the substance with which the author had been working on that particular day. With this in mind he ingested a quantity of the suspected compound, d-lysergic acid amide diethyl-, three days later on April 19, 1943, by way of a personal experiment.
Since the free base was very poorly soluble in water, the readily soluble, easily crystallised tartrate was prepared for this purpose. This preparation, d-lysergic acid amide diethyl-tartrate subsequently became widely known as LSD-25.
The dose of 0.25 mg was regarded as the smallest which might be expected to elicit any effect. At that time no substance was known which exhibited clearly marked activity in such a minute dose. The plan was to systematically increase the dose, thereby cautiously exploring the suspected psychotropic activity of the compound. However, it so happened that 0.25 mg, though a minute quantity, was still a gross overdosage.
This may be gathered from the entry, made only with great difficulty in the laboratory notebook 40 minutes after ingestion: ‘Onset of dizziness, feeling of anxiety, visual disturbances, paralysis, urge to laugh! "Received 23 June 1969 and it appeared in:
Agents and Actions, Vol. 1 / 3 (1970) In connection with the section on scientific autographs, "Agents and Actions" will occasionally publish personal accounts and documents of important contributions to pharmacology. We have asked Dr. A. Hofmann, who discovered LSD and the ‘remarkable, but not unpleasant state of intoxication’ it may cause, to initiate this series. (Ed. Agents and Actions)