Journal of Mental Science
January 1, 1954
A. Hoffer, H Osmond, John Smythies
300 citations
A hypothesis that a substance with properties between mescaline and adrenaline, called M substance, might be an aetiological agent in schizophrenia was proposed a year earlier. The current paper reports on a year of collaborative testing of that hypothesis. The hypothesis suggested that such a substance, with mescaline-like psychological effects but adrenaline-like concentrations, could account for schizophrenia better than existing theories.
Journal of Mental Science
April 1, 1954
R. A. Sandison, A. M. Spencer, J. D. A. Whitelaw
191 citations
D-lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD 25), first synthesized in 1938, is a synthetic amide that induces psychic states where subjects become aware of repressed memories and unconscious material while remaining conscious. In a one-year preliminary study of 36 psychoneurotic patients, the drug shows promise for treating psychoneuroses and related mental illnesses.
Journal of Mental Science
October 1, 1958
Frances R. Ames
184 citations
Giving oral doses of hashish, also known as marihuana or dagga, produces mental disturbances similar to those caused by mescaline and lysergic acid. Because these changes resemble symptoms of schizophrenia, some researchers have proposed using such drug-induced “model psychoses” to study the mechanisms and causes of natural psychoses. Cannabis has received less attention than mescaline and lysergic acid, likely because its chemistry is not fully understood and plant preparations are difficult to standardize and vary in potency.
Journal of Mental Science
April 1, 1954
R. A. Sandison
90 citations
Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) is valuable in the psychotherapy of neuroses. The drug's mechanism of action is examined through dynamic psychology, specifically Jungian analytical psychology. Neuroses result from a faulty relationship between conscious and unconscious minds, leading to a one-sided conscious viewpoint. This paper adopts the Jungian conception of the unconscious to explore how LSD may correct this imbalance.
Journal of Mental Science
April 1, 1957
80 citations
Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) shows promise in treating mental illness, based on clinical experience gained since an earlier report. The paper describes outcomes from continued use of the drug in therapeutic settings, detailing its effects on patients with various mental disorders. The authors suggest that LSD can facilitate psychological insight and improve symptoms in some cases, though they note limitations and the need for careful administration. The account provides a qualitative assessment of the drug's potential as a treatment tool, grounded in observed patient responses over an extended period.
Journal of Mental Science
May 1, 1936
E. Guttmann
67 citations
Progress in general medicine often comes from clinical observation or controlled experiments, but psychiatry has limited opportunities for the latter. One available method is the use of intoxicating drugs to study psychological changes, an approach first emphasized by Kraepelin. Many observers have tested drugs like alcohol, caffeine, hyoscine, and cocaine on various psychic faculties, collecting copious data. However, the value of these observations for understanding the psycho-pathology of major psychoses is limited, because producing a true psychosis picture typically requires dangerous or chronic intoxication levels.
Journal of Mental Science
January 1, 1940
G. Tayleur Stockings
64 citations
Psychiatrists have recently focused on experimentally reproducing psychotic phenomena in healthy individuals, yielding remarkable and interesting facts that expand clinical understanding of psychosis.
Journal of Mental Science
April 1, 1955
Dwight I. Peretz, John R. Smythies, William C. Gibson
55 citations
TMA (3,4,5-Trimethoxyphenyl-β-aminopropane) shares a chemical structure with both amphetamine and mescaline. Because of this dual relationship, researchers anticipated that the compound might produce clinical effects combining features of both drugs. The study investigated whether TMA would indeed elicit a blend of amphetamine-like and mescaline-like responses in practice.
Journal of Mental Science
January 1, 1962
G Anastasopoulos, Harry Photiades
41 citations
Patients with schizophrenia who are given LSD-25 experience a worsening of their symptoms and a return to an earlier, more primitive stage of their psychosis, with these manifestations appearing more directly tied to the patients' personal life histories. Additionally, some healthy individuals given the same drug develop paranoid symptoms, though whether hereditary factors influence this reaction remains unknown.
Journal of Mental Science
April 1, 1958
Z. Böszörményi, St. Szára
38 citations
Interest in experimental psychoses has grown due to new hallucinogenic agents and technical advances in fields like biochemistry and electrophysiology. Kraepelin's vision of inducing miniature psychoses by administering foreign substances may be realized.
Journal of Mental Science
July 1, 1955
Humphry Osmond
35 citations
Eating the seeds of the tropical American vine Rivea corymbosa, known in Mexico as ololiuqui, produces a model psychosis. The author describes obtaining seeds from a Harvard University research laboratory, noting the importance of proper botanical identification for reliable experimental results. The account focuses on the psychoactive effects of the plant, which has been compared to peyote.
Journal of Mental Science
October 1, 1958
J. C. Brengelmann, C. M. B. Pare, M. Sandler
31 citations
Injecting 5-hydroxytryptophan before lysergic acid diethylamide reduces the psychological effects of LSD, supporting the hypothesis that serotonin acts to diminish those effects. Placebo-controlled psychological tests showed this reduction.
Journal of Mental Science
January 1, 1955
N. Agnew, A. Hoffer
26 citations
Theoretical and flesh and blood models, such as drug-induced psychoses, aim to provide insights into psychopathology but cannot accurately represent naturally occurring psychoses due to their inherent variability. A model is useful only insofar as it helps generate and test hypotheses about disease etiology, mechanisms, or treatment. This paper examines the model psychosis produced by LSD.
Journal of Mental Science
April 1, 1960
John Smythies, Carmit Levy
23 citations
Biological research into schizophrenia faces two main approaches. The direct method, studying body fluids and metabolism of patients, has yet to yield substantiated findings; most positive claims have been refuted, and current knowledge of neurochemistry and neuropharmacology is too limited to expect positive results. The indirect method, studying psychotomimetic agents like mescaline and LSD-25, offers more promise. Understanding the structure-activity relationships (SAR) of mescaline—how its molecular structure affects its action—could pinpoint areas for research in schizophrenia metabolism. This paper reviews what is known about mescaline's SAR and reports new psychopharmacological studies, aiming to link behavioral, neurophysiological, and neurochemical factors.
Journal of Mental Science
January 1, 1956
J. Amor Ardis, Peter Mckellar
17 citations
Visual effects of mescaline and hypnagogic imagery (images experienced just before sleep) show more than superficial similarity, suggesting that comparing the two states may illuminate underlying processes. Early observations by Weir Mitchell (1896) noted this resemblance, and the authors' own research group began investigating after a subject described mescaline visions as similar to pre-sleep imagery. Findings from a prior study on hypnagogic imagery (McKellar and Simpson, 1954) and further mescaline experiments support the connection.
Journal of Mental Science
October 1, 1958
J. C. Brengelmann
10 citations
This analysis examines an experiment by Brengelmann, Pare, and Sandler that investigated whether 5-hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP) alters the effects of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) as measured by psychological tests. The discussion focuses on problems with measuring and validating the concept of LSD-induced psychosis, questioning whether psychological tests can reliably capture the drug's effects.