LSD vs Anxiety!

We’ve written before about how psychedelics can have lasting (beneficial!) effects, here:

Psychedelics: Yes Even Once?

However, after a lot of research into psilocybin (the active compound in “magic mushrooms”) and some other psychedelics, the “yes even once” part of that was in reference to a study using the psychedelic compound 25CN-NBOH, a selective serotonin 2A receptor agonist (which honestly does not have a snappier name than that or else we’d use it), and how it improved cognitive flexibility (albeit: in mice) in a lasting fashion.

You can read that paper in full (and see graphs!) here:

Single-dose psychedelic enhances cognitive flexibility and reversal learning in mice weeks* after administration

*About “weeks”; the experiment ran for 20 days and that was that. It is not known how long the benefits would have persisted, only that in the first 20 days, they showed no signs of disappearing.

Suffice it to say, an LSD trip does not last for weeks. So, it seems the changes have been made to the brain and that’s that.

So, what about LSD and anxiety?

A “chill pill” with safe, lasting effects?

We previously shared this study:

Repeated lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) reverses stress-induced anxiety-like behavior, cortical synaptogenesis deficits and serotonergic neurotransmission decline

However, that was (once again) mice. And, as the study title suggests, repeated LSD use, not just a single dose.

Today, we’ll be looking at a study into the effects of LSD vs anxiety in humans, from a single dose.

Researchers (Dr. Reid Robinson et al.) found that a single LSD dose eased anxiety symptoms for up to 3 months* in 198 patients with moderate to severe anxiety

*This is a case of the study running for three months, so the researchers can’t comment on what how long it lasts after the three months, because the research grant didn’t have enough for a crystal ball for them to use to write about the future and what will happen with the study participants after the study period. After all, at some point one needs to draw a line under it and publish the results.

About that timeline:

• at baseline, all patients had moderate to severe anxiety
• at four weeks, those who took higher doses significantly lowered anxiety scores compared to smaller doses or placebo
• at 12 weeks, 65% of patients who took 100 mg still showed improvements and 48% were in remission

One thing that set this study apart from many is that it unlike most psychedelic studies paired with therapy, this trial tested LSD alone under supervision to isolate the drug’s effect vs placebo, rather than the effect drug+therapy and being unsure whether it would have helped without the therapy.

About that placebo: it was noted as a limitation of the study that that many patients correctly guessed whether they took LSD or placebo (weakening blinding). The resultant high dropout rate (because it’s not very motivating to keep at something where you’re almost certain you received the placebo) reduced the final data set. Still, the researchers did what they could under the circumstances.

You can find the paper itself, here: Single Treatment With MM120 (Lysergide D-Tartrate) in Generalized Anxiety Disorder

On which note, with regard to “lysergide D-tartrate”; that is a form of LSD (it’s a salt of LSD, which is then metabolized as such, so one could argue that it’s essentially a pro-drug), and/but since it is far from the only form of LSD, it cannot be said for sure whether the effects will be the same with any/all LSD. It seems likely that the results will translate just the same to other forms of LSD, but we can’t say that confidently without the science actually being done for it.

Want to learn more?

With regard to psychedelics in general, see:

Taking A Trip Through The Evidence On Psychedelics

Take care!