The Psychedelic Experience - A New Concept in Psychotherapy

Classic hallucinogens in the treatment of addictions

“…Clinical work with classic hallucinogens has emphasized the central role of the patient's conscious experience during the drug's acute effects (Grof, 2008;Hoffer, 1967;Masters and Houston, 2000;Pahnke et al, 1970;Sherwood et al, 1962). Most of the clinical studies conducted in North America using LSD in the treatment of addiction or existential anxiety in terminal cancer during the 1950s-1970s employed the psychedelic model described in Section 2.3.…”

“…Only LSD, psilocybin and, to a lesser extent, DPT and mescaline have been used in clinical trials for addiction. Mescaline was administered interchangeably or in combination with LSD in some of the early reports on psychedelic treatment of alcoholism (Sherwood et al, 1962;Smith, 1958;Smith, 1959), but there are no trials specifically examining the effects of mescaline. DMT (as an ingredient of ayahuasca, see below) has been used extensively for hundreds or thousands of years in religious contexts, and have been used with therapeutic intent within both religious and secular paradigms.…”

“…The psycholytic method used low to moderate doses of hallucinogens, administered on multiple occasions, to facilitate therapy that was based on traditional psychoanalytic principles (Buckman, 1967;Leuner, 1967). The psychedelic method, rather than emphasizing resolution of childhood conflicts or traumatic experiences, used higher doses of hallucinogens, administered on one or a few occasions, with the goal of inducing a "psychedelic," "mystical," or "peak" experience, which, it was held, often induced lasting change in habitual patterns of thought, emotional response, and behavior (Hoffer, 1967;Sherwood et al, 1962). The primary focus of research on the use of hallucinogenic substances in the treatment of addiction was the use of the prototypical classic hallucinogen LSD in the treatment of alcoholism.…”

A Review of LSD Treatment in Alcoholism

“…The single dose of LSD, administered orally in all investigations, ranged from 50 to 450 pg, with a mean dose of 233.9 pg. The degree of improvement varied from 100 % in the 2 studies with 2-3 patients each (14,36), to 25 % in another study (21), but length of follow-up was not reported in any of these 3 studies. Ten studies reported follow-up, which varied from prior to discharge from the hospital, to 55 months after LSD treatment.2 The study of Ditman et al (9) showed that the longer the follow-up, the lower the percentage of improvement: They reported improvement in 67 % of his patients at 6-18 months after treatment, but this had dropped to 50 % after 2 years.…”

“…Single-dose studies without control are summarized in table I. These 13 studies plus one later follow-up (6,9,12,14,20,21,25,26,28,29,32,36,42,44) have utilized a total of 408 patients (a range of 2-69 patients per study). The patients included in 7 of these studies (6,12,25,28,29,32,42) had been drinking for from 8-20 years, with a mean of 12.15 years; the 6 remaining authors did not specify length of alcoholic intake.…”