From Psychiatry to Flower Power and Back Again: The Amazing Story of Lysergic Acid Diethylamide.
Assay and drug development technologies July 1, 2016 Hermann A M Mucke 3 citations
Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), a prominent psychedelic drug used in psychiatric research in the 1950s and 1960s, was explored as a potential treatment for anxiety, depression, alcohol abuse, autism, and schizophrenia. Its association with the Hippie counterculture and reports of hallucinogen persisting perception disorder and flashbacks led to its criminalization, though research was never formally banned. The field nearly vanished until the early 2010s, when modern tools of molecular pharmacology, functional imaging, and neuronal network theory revived LSD research, raising medical and ethical questions. Originally developed as an analeptic, LSD exemplifies the unexpected potential of discarded early-stage compounds.