An Untold Story of LSD Psychotherapy in Communist Czechoslovakia

On Milan Hausner, the Sadská clinic, and the rise and fall of LSD psychotherapy behind the Iron Curtain.

How LSD and shrooms could help treat anxiety, addiction, and depression

Here’s what we know: In supervised lab studies, psychedelic drugs like psilocybin and LSD seemed to produce psychological or mystical experiences so powerful that they could help treat conditions like end-of-life anxiety, depression, addiction, and obsessive compulsive disorder.

LSD and the Third Eye

The science of psychedelic experience.

LSD doesn't just treat mental illness, 'it could actually heal the brain

Mental health for years has been inadequately addressed, partly because the tools we had on offer were hard to scale, and partly because some of the most powerful tools in brain health were stigmatised and turned into scheduled drugs, effectively halting any progress that could be made to prove their efficacy...

LSD, Reconsidered for Therapy

The trial was far too small to be conclusive, said Dr. Gasser, whose co-authors include Dr. Doblin, Dominique Holstein of UniversityHospital Zurich and Rudolf Brenneisen of the University of Bern. But the researchers see the results as a beginning. The drug caused no serious side effects, other than temporary — and therapeutically valuable — periods of distress.

LSD-Like Drugs Are Out of the Haze and Back in the Labs

At respected research centers in the United States and other countries, scientists have spent much of their professional lives in drug rehabilitation. It is not because they themselves struggle with addiction. What they are trying to rehabilitate are the drugs. Their focus is on mind-altering compounds that fell far from grace nearly half a century ago, LSD prominent among them.

One way to heal a brain injury? Let LSD open your mind—literally.

Many physicians and researchers say that the advantage of psychedelic therapies is that they are so potent only one or a few doses are generally required, so they could offer a unique treatment pathway. “A lot of the drugs we currently use for brain injuries must be taken daily,” Aggarwal says. Using psychedelic drugs “is a different paradigm, which relies a lot more on the body’s innate healing capabilities and stimulating that process to occur more robustly.”

Reclaiming LSD for Psychotherapy

Psychotropic drugs were once used to help patients work through a variety of mental-health issues. Meet the therapists who want to bring them back.

Switzerland Briefly Legalized LSD Therapy and Then Couldn't Let It Go

From 1988 to 1993, Switzerland made therapy with psychedelic drugs legal. Therapists have been trying to continue their work since.

The most convincing argument for legalizing LSD, shrooms, and other psychedelics

I have a profound fear of death. It's not bad enough to cause serious depression or anxiety. But it is bad enough to make me avoid thinking about the possibility of dying — to avoid a mini existential crisis in my mind. But it turns out there may be a better cure for this fear than simply not thinking about it. It's not yoga, a new therapy program, or a medicine currently on the (legal) market. It's psychedelic drugs — LSD, ibogaine, and psilocybin, which is found in magic mushrooms.

The Promise of LSD Microdoses and Other Psychedelic

Psychiatrist John Halpern discusses the psychotherapeutic potential of peyote, ayahuasca, psilocybin, MDMA and other psychedelics.

The real promise of LSD, MDMA and mushrooms for medical science

Psychedelic science is making a comeback. Scientific publications, therapeutic breakthroughs and cultural endorsements suggest that the historical reputation of psychedelics — such as lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), mescaline (from the peyote cactus) and psilocybin (mushrooms) — as dangerous or inherently risky have unfairly overshadowed a more optimistic interpretation.

Therapeutic Use of LSD in Psychiatry: A Systematic Review of Randomized-Controlled Clinical Trials

Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) was studied from the 1950s to the 1970s to evaluate behavioral and personality changes, as well as remission of psychiatric symptoms in various disorders. LSD was used in the treatment of anxiety, depression, psychosomatic diseases and addiction. However, most of the studies were not performed under contemporary standards, and it has taken several decades for a resurgence of interest in LSD research and its therapeutic potential for psychiatry.

Tripping on LSD and mushrooms could help you quit smoking and cure depression

As the world increasingly embraces medical marijuana, some researchers are beginning to look at how other, more taboo drugs might be used to treat health issues. Hallucinogens aren't often at the center of conversations about US drug policy. But these drugs — LSD, mushrooms, and ecstasy, to name a few — are categorized by the federal government as schedule 1 substances, with high risk of abuse and no medical value.

Why Doctors Can't Give You LSD (But Maybe They Should)

For the first time since the 1970s, researchers are being allowed to study the potential medical properties of the most tightly controlled substances around. But it's not easy.