Maybe a Trip Is All You Need
Results from a study of LSD show promise for people suffering from anxiety disorder
Prepping for a trip used to freak me out—the planning, the packing, the scheduling. Like some six million American adults, I live with generalized anxiety disorder. With the help of medication and therapy, I’ve learned to cope. I know what the feeling is, I compensate, and by the time I get where I’m going, I can enjoy myself.
But researchers say another kind of trip might help with anxiety. Acid. Not a Grateful Dead excursion or dropping into the space-time continuum of Sgt. Pepper. Instead, one carefully measured dose of LSD—about 100 micrograms—in a medical setting.
A new study tested LSD on about two hundred people with moderate to severe anxiety. Some got the real drug, some a placebo. The results were remarkable. One dose eased symptoms in many patients, and in almost half, the relief lasted for three months. That’s after just one treatment.
The study was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Unlike other trials that included hours of counseling, this one kept it simple: just the drug, no therapy, to see LSD’s direct effect.
There were side effects: nausea, headaches, and sometimes hallucinations. But overall, those who took LSD improved much more than those who got the placebo.
That doesn’t mean it’s ready for do-it-yourself use. Most volunteers could tell if they’d taken the real thing, so the study wasn’t fully blind. And scientists still don’t know the long-term effects of repeated use. Larger trials are already underway, and the company behind the study hopes to get FDA approval.
Some officials have even suggested a fast-track review for veterans with severe psychological wounds, like PTSD.
Generalized anxiety disorder is common. The National Institutes of Health says about 3 percent of U.S. adults have it. Current medications help many, but not everyone.
The bottom line: LSD shows real promise as a treatment for generalized anxiety disorder. But it’s not something to try on your own. It’s still illegal for recreational use.
And if it does become a medical treatment, who knows—maybe we’ll get another wave of really groovy music.