The Varieties of Psychedelic Expertise in 1960s Canada: The Psychiatrists behind the Addiction Research Foundation's Study of LSD Therapy.
Canadian journal of health history = Revue canadienne d'histoire de la sante April 1, 2023 Andrew Jones 2 citations
In 1962, the Addiction Research Foundation of Ontario conducted the first double-blind randomized controlled trial of LSD therapy for alcoholism, finding it ineffective. Critics argued the Toronto researchers were biased against LSD, using an anti-therapeutic method—restraining patients to a bed, administering an unusually large dose, and providing minimal support—which some called a form of torture. Historians have dismissed the study as flawed or naïve. This paper reexamines the Toronto psychiatrists, showing they were actually enthusiastic about LSD and had their own sophisticated expertise, differing from the Saskatchewan psychedelic approach. The study's problems arose not from bias or incompetence but from the tension between LSD therapy and controlled trial methodology.