LSD

D-lysergic acid diethylamide, commonly called acid, LSD, or LSD-25, is a powerful semisynthetic psychedelic drug. A typical dose of LSD is only 100 to 150 micrograms, a tiny amount roughly equal to one-tenth the weight of a grain of sand. Threshold effects can be felt with as little as 20 micrograms. LSD causes a powerful intensification and alteration of senses, feelings, memories, and self-awareness for 6 to 14 hours. In addition, LSD usually produces visual effects such as moving geometric patterns, "trails" behind moving objects, and brilliant colors. LSD usually does not produce hallucinations in the strict sense, but instead illusions and vivid daydream-like fantasies. At higher concentrations it can cause synaesthesia.

Effects

Physical

Physical reactions to LSD are highly variable and may include: uterine contractions, body temperature increase, elevated blood sugar levels, dry-mouth, goose bumps, heart-rate increase, jaw clenching, nausea, perspiration, pupil-dilation, salivation, mucus production, sleeplessness and tremors. Cramps and muscle tension are also fairly commonly reported, but rather than being direct effects of LSD in the bloodstream, these symptoms are believed by some to be the result of awkward positions assumed by users experiencing fluctuations in their awareness of the passage of time and their own physical discomfort.

Related Topics:
Uterine - Temperature - Blood sugar - Goose bumps - Heart - Nausea - Perspiration - Pupil - Dilation - Saliva - Mucus - Sleep - Tremor - Cramps - Muscle

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LSD has been studied in the past as a painkiller for serious and chronic pain caused by cancer or other major trauma. Even at low (sub-psychedelic) dosages, it was found to be at least as effective as traditional opiates while being much longer lasting (pain reduction lasting as long as a week—after peak effects had subsided).

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Furthermore, LSD has been investigated as a treatment for cluster headaches, an uncommon but extremely painful disorder one researcher describes as "worse than natural childbirth or even amputation without anesthetic." Although the phenomenon has not been fully investigated, case reports indicate that LSD and psilocybin can reduce cluster pain and also interrupt the cluster-headache cycle, preventing future headaches from occurring. Currently existing treatments include various ergotamines, among other chemicals, so LSD's efficacy may not be surprising. A dose-response study, testing the effectiveness of both LSD and psilocybin, is as of 2005 being planned at McLean Hospital. Unlike attempts to use LSD or MDMA in psychotherapy, this research involves non-psychological effects and often sub-psychedelic dosages; therefore, it is plausibly the most likely way that a respected medical use of LSD will arise. http://www.maps.org/research/cluster/psilo-lsd/, http://www.clusterbusters.com/, http://www.clusterheadaches.ca/DesktopDefault.aspx

Related Topics:
Cluster headache - Psilocybin - Ergotamine - As of 2005 - McLean Hospital - MDMA - Psychotherapy

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Pharmacological

LSD affects a huge number of receptors, including all dopamine receptor subtypes, all adrenoreceptor subtypes as well as many others. LSD binds to most serotonin receptor subtypes except for 5-HT3 and 5-HT4. The hallucinogenic effects of LSD are attributed to its partial agonist effects at 5-HT2A receptors. Exactly how this produces the drug's effects is unknown, but it is thought that it works by increasing excitation in cortical layers which facilitate the spread of information throughout the cortex. Through this, LSD causes parts of the brain which would not normally be activated by a given stimulus to become engaged.

Related Topics:
Receptors - Dopamine receptor - Adrenoreceptor - Serotonin receptor

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Psychological

LSD's psychological effects (colloquially called a "trip") vary greatly from person to person, from one trip to another, and even as time passes during a single trip. Widely different effects emerge based on set and setting — the 'set' being the general mindset of the user, and the 'setting' being the physical and social environment in which the drug's effects are experienced.

Related Topics:
Colloquially - Set and setting

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An LSD trip can have long lasting or even permanent neutral, negative, and positive psychoemotional effects. LSD experiences can range from indescribably ecstatic to extraordinarily difficult; many difficult experiences (or "bad trips") result from a panicked user feeling that he or she has been permanently severed from reality and his or her ego. If the user is in a hostile or otherwise unsettling environment, or is not mentally prepared for the powerful distortions in perception and thought that the drug causes, effects are more likely to be unpleasant.

Related Topics:
Reality - Ego

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Conversely, a pleasant, comfortable environment and a relaxed, balanced and open mindset will often result in a unique and extremely unusual experience.

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The sensory shifts caused by the drug can lead users to sit or lie in awkward positions for extended periods of time, resulting in muscle cramps and soreness that may mistakenly be attributed to the direct physical action of the drug.

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Sensory/perception

Generally beginning within thirty to ninety minutes after ingestion and continuing for the following six to twelve hours, the user may experience anything from subtle changes in perception to overwhelming cognitive shifts and vivid illusions.

Related Topics:
Cognitive shift - Illusion

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Sensory shifts include "high-level" sensory distortions such as warping of surfaces, appearance of moving geometrical patterns and textures on objects, blurred vision, image trailing, shape suggestibility, and color variations. Users often describe seeing new colors that they have not previously experienced, or colors may appear to have greater intensity. Perspective distortions may occur where items in the foreground appear to become part of the background, or the foreground and background may become temporarily indistinguishable. Changes in aural and visual perception are common, ranging from mild to overwhelming.

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Higher doses often bring about shifts at a lower cognitive level - causing intense and fundamental distortions of sensory perception such as synaesthesia, the experience of additional spatial or temporal dimensions, and temporary dissociation.

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Spiritual

LSD is considered an entheogen because it often catalyzes intense spiritual experiences where users feel they have come into contact with a greater spiritual or cosmic order. It is common for users to believe that they have achieved insights into the way the mind works and some users experience permanent or long-lasting changes in their life perspective. Some users consider LSD a religious sacrament, or a powerful tool for access to the divine. Many books have been written comparing the LSD trip to the state of enlightenment of eastern philosophy.

Related Topics:
Entheogen - Enlightenment - Eastern philosophy

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Such experiences under the influence of LSD have been observed and documented by researchers such as Timothy Leary and Stanislav Grof. A brief video documentary of The Good Friday Marsh Chapel Experiment that took place under Leary's supervision can be viewed here. That study showed that hallucinogens could reliably be used to induce mystical religious states.

Related Topics:
Timothy Leary - Stanislav Grof

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Acute duration

LSD's primary effects normally last from 6 to 12 hours. It is typical for users of LSD to be unable to sleep restfully (or at all, despite desperate attempts) until at least 12 hours have passed, and they do not feel completely "back to normal" until after getting one or two full nights of restful sleep, although they will exhibit no outward signs of impairment after the drug has worn off.

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LSD has an extremely short half life in the body. Most of the drug's already minuscule dose is eliminated before the trip is even over, suggesting that LSD triggers some sort of neurochemical cascade rather than acting directly to produce its effects.

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Anecdotal reports indicate that administration of Thorazine or similar typical antipsychotic tranquilizers will not end an LSD trip, but rather will just immobilize the patient. While it also may not end an LSD trip, the best chemical treatment for a "bad trip" is an anti-anxiety agent such as valium (diazepam) or other benzodiazepines. There have also been reports of Niacinamide being useful, a claim that has not been verified scientifically and is therefore questionable.

Related Topics:
Thorazine - Typical antipsychotic - Niacinamide

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Physical dangers

Although LSD is generally considered nontoxic, other dangers may arise from bad judgments made during the experience. As with many drugs, while under the influence of LSD the ability to make sensible judgments and understand common dangers can be impaired, making the user susceptible to personal injury.

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If an individual attempts to drive a car or operate machinery under the influence of the drug, it could lead to accidents and injury.

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There is also some indication that LSD may trigger a dissociative fugue state in individuals who are taking certain classes of antidepressants such as lithium salts and tricyclics. In such a state, the user has an impulse to wander, and may not be aware of his or her actions, which can lead to physical injury. MAOIs and SSRIs are believed to interact more benignly, with a tendency to significantly reduce LSD's subjective effects.

Related Topics:
Dissociative fugue - Antidepressants - Lithium salt - Tricyclics - MAOI - SSRIs

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Flashbacks

There is also a commonly reported possibility of "flashbacks", a psychological phenomenon in which an individual experiences an episode of some of the subjective effects of LSD (this may be a positive or negative experience) long after the drug has been consumed and worn off -- sometimes weeks, months or even years afterward. Flashbacks are an example of a Hallucinogen Persisting Perception Disorder, a DSM-IV diagnosis. Several journal articles have described the disorder (see, for example, Adverse consequences of lysergic acid diethylamide, H.D. Abraham and A. Aldridge, Addiction 1993, 88:1327-1334). Several studies have tried to determine how likely a "normal user" (that is a user not suffering from known psychiatric conditions) of LSD is to experience flashbacks. The larger studies include (Flashback phenomena in basic trainees who enter the US Air Force, Blumenfield, Military Medicine, 136, 39-41, 1971) and (LSD Flashbacks and Ego Functioning, Naditch, M & Fenwick, Journal of Abnormal Psychology, Vol. 86, No 4, 352-359, 1977), arriving at figures of 20% and 28%, respectively. A recent review suggests that flashbacks, according to the DSM-IV definition, appears to be a rare disorder, that affect a distinctly vulnerable subpopulation of users (Hallucinogen persisting perception disorder: what do we know after 50 years?, Halpern JH, Pope HG Jr, Drug Alcohol Depend., Vol. 69, No 2, 109-119, 2003); (Hallucinogens: an update, Halpern JH, Curr Psychiatry Rep., Vol. 5, 347-54, 2003.)http://www.erowid.org/references/refs_view.php?A=ShowDoc1&ID=6224

Related Topics:
Flashbacks - Hallucinogen Persisting Perception Disorder - DSM-IV

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Debate continues over the nature and causes of flashbacks. Some say flashbacks are a manifestation of post-traumatic stress disorder, not directly related to LSD's mechanism, and varying according to the susceptibility of the individual to the disorder. Many emotionally intense experiences can lead to flashbacks when a person is reminded acutely of the original experience.

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Several urban legends claim that flashbacks are the result of trace amounts of LSD or related chemicals being dislodged and released into the body after having been crystallized and stored in fat or spinal fluid cells. However, scientific research has disproven this conjecture; LSD (which is water soluble) is metabolized in the liver, as with many other drugs, and its metabolites are excreted normally in the urine.

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Psychoses

There are some cases of LSD inducing or triggering a psychosis in people that were apparently healthy prior to taking LSD. In most cases, the psychosis is of short duration, but in other cases it may be chronic. It is difficult to determine if LSD in itself induces these psychoses or if it merely triggers latent conditions that would have manifested themselves otherwise. Several studies have tried to estimate the prevalence of LSD-induced prolonged psychosis arriving at numbers of around 4 in 1000 individuals. But this figure (less than 1/2 of 1%) is far less than the lifetime prevalence for psychotic conditions, e.g., schizophrenia (just one form of psychosis) has a lifetime prevalence of about 1% in populations that are not exposed to LSD. Therefore, there is no data to support a causative link between LSD and chronic psychotic disorders.

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