Prolonged Adverse Reactions to LSD in Psychotic Subjects
Archives of General Psychiatry – November 01, 1966
Source: OpenAlex
Summary
A concerning 40% of individuals who experienced prolonged effects from lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) reported symptoms lasting from one week to two years. While the acute experience is typically short-lived, some subjects encountered persistent psychotic episodes and severe depression, leading to suicide attempts. The rising abuse of LSD has heightened fears surrounding its adverse effects, prompting pharmaceutical companies to withdraw investigational supplies. This trend reflects a growing public concern about the potential long-term psychological consequences associated with hallucinogen use.
Abstract
THE INCREASED abuse of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) has aroused popular concern for its complications and has led the leading pharmaceutical manufacturer to withdraw its supplies from investigational use. Recent reports, especially those in the lay press, give the impression of an increasing incidence of persistent psychoses, associating the observations with the illicit use of LSD.1,2 The experimental LSD experience in medical settings is usually described as transient, limited to a few hours or at most a day. The persistence of ideational or emotional changes beyond 24 hours may be defined as "prolonged effects" and these have been reported in surprisingly few subjects.3,4The descriptions of these prolonged adverse effects generally include spontaneous recurrences of the acute LSD experience, persistent psychotic decompensations, induced depression with attempted and completed suicides, and multihabituation. The durations of these states range between one week and two years, with about 40% of the