http://sci.tech-archive.net/Archive/sci.med/2008-06/msg00039.html

LSD treatment for alcoholism gets new look


Some participants still have not had a drink 40 years after the trials
Public release date: 6-Oct-2006

Contact: Ryan Smith
ryan.smith@xxxxxxxxxxx
780-492-0436
University of Alberta

LSD treatment

For the past five years, Dr. Erika Dyck has been unearthing some
intriguing facts related to a group of pioneering psychiatrists who
worked in Saskatchewan, Canada in the '50s and '60s.

Among other things, the University of Alberta history of medicine
professor has found records of the psychiatrists' research that
indicate a single dose of the hallucinogenic drug LSD, provided in a
clinical, nurturing environment, can be an effective treatment for
alcoholism.

Her findings are published this month in the journal Social History of
Medicine.

After perceiving similarities in the experiences of people on LSD and
people going through delirium tremens, the psychiatrists undertook a
series of experiments. They noted that delirium tremens, also know as
DTs, often marked a "rock bottom" or turning point in the behavior of
alcoholics, and they felt LSD may be able to trigger such a turnaround
without engendering the painful physical effects associated with DTs.

As it turns out, they were largely correct.

"The LSD somehow gave these people experiences that psychologically
took them outside of themselves and allowed them to see their own
unhealthy behavior more objectively, and then determine to change it,"
said Dyck, who read the researchers' published and private papers and
recently interviewed some of the patients involved in the original
studies--many of whom had not had a sip of alcohol since their single
LSD experience 40 years earlier.

According to one study conducted in 1962, 65 per cent of the
alcoholics in the experiment stopped drinking for at least a year-and-
a-half (the duration of the study) after taking one dose of LSD. The
controlled trial also concluded that less than 25 per cent of
alcoholics quit drinking for the same period after receiving group
therapy, and less than 12 per cent quit in response to traditional
psychotherapy techniques commonly used at that time.

Published in the Quarterly Journal for Studies on Alcohol, the 1962
study was received with much skepticism. One research group in Toronto
tried to replicate the results of the study, but wanted to observe the
effect of LSD on the patients in isolation, so they blindfolded or
tied up the patients before giving them the drug. Under such
circumstances, the Toronto researchers determined LSD was not
effective in treating alcoholism.

The Saskatchewan group argued that the drug needed to be provided in a
nurturing environment to be effective. However, the Toronto
researchers held more credibility than the Saskatchewan researchers--
who were led by a controversial, British psychiatrist, Dr. Humphry
Osmond--and the Saskatchewan group's research was essentially buried.

But Dyck believes there is value in the Saskatchewan group's
experiments.

"The LSD experience appeared to allow the patients to go through a
spiritual journey that ultimately empowered them to heal themselves,
and that's really quite an amazing therapy regimen," Dyck said. "Even
interviewing the patients 40 years after their experience, I was
surprised at how loyal they were to the doctors who treated them, and
how powerful they said the experience was for them--some even felt the
experience saved their lives."

In spite of the promise LSD showed as psychotherapy tool, its
subsequent popularity as a street drug, and the perception of it as a
threat to public safety, triggered a worldwide ban in the late 1960s--
including its use in medical experiments. However, the ban on its use
in medical experiments appears to be lifting, Dyck noted. A few groups
of researchers in the U.S., including a team at Harvard, have recently
been granted permission to conduct experiments with LSD.

"We accept all sorts of drugs, but I think LSD's 'street' popularity
ultimately led to its demise," Dyck said. "And that's too bad, because
I think the researchers in Saskatchewan, among others, showed the drug
is unique and has some intriguing properties that need to be explored
further."


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