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Peter Gasser, M.D.
pg@hin.ch |
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Research from
the 1950s and 60s
provides encouraging
evidence that the
spiritual experiences
and deep insights that
LSD facilitates
can be great help
when one is
confronted with
one’s own
imminent death. |
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Planning LSD Research in Switzerland
Peter Gasser, M.D.
A few days before the wonderful
international symposium on the
occasion of Albert Hofmann’s
100th birthday, “LSD: Problem Child and
Wonder Drug,” I had the opportunity to
go on a walk in the snowy Jura mountains
with MAPS President Rick Doblin, Ph.D.
As we walked and talked, we discussed
the possibility of re-starting LSD-assisted
psychotherapy research, and decided
that this year is the right time.
A few months later, we are now in the
protocol design stage for a double-blind
placebo-controlled pilot study with 12
subjects. Along the same lines as Charles
Grob’s, M.D., psyilocybin/cancer anxiety
study and John Halpern’s, M.D., MDMA/
cancer anxiety study, this study will
investigate LSD-assisted psychotherapy as
a potential treatment for subjects who
suffer from anxiety related to advanced
stage cancer and other life-threatening
illnesses. Research from the 1950s and 60s
provides encouraging evidence that the
spiritual experiences and deep insights
that LSD facilitates can be great help when
one is confronted with one’s own imminent
death. For this study, we seek to
empirically examine the potential of LSDassisted
psychotherapy to relieve anxiety
and improve the quality of life for these
subjects. We also want to evaluate
whether LSD-assisted psychotherapy is a
safe and reliable treatment, so that if the
results are promising, the data from this
study can be used to develop LSD into a
legal prescription medicine.
The tentative plan is for a doubleblind,
placebo-controlled pilot study, in
which the experimental group of eight
subjects will be administered 250mcg. LSD
and the control group of four subjects will
receive a low dose/placebo of 25mcg. LSD.
The tentative plan is for an open-label,
double-blind study, in which one control
group will be administered 200mcg. LSD
and the other will receive a placebo of
25mcg. LSD. The subjects will undergo
two or three sessions of LSD-assisted
psychotherapy, in addition to eight
conventional non-drug psychotherapy
sessions for preparation and integration of
the experiences. After their final follow-up
evaluation, subjects who receive placebo
will have the opportunity to participate in
an open-label Stage 2 in which they would
receive two LSD-assisted psychotherapy
sessions and associated non-drug psychotherapy
sessions for preparation and
integration.
There has been no legal LSD psychotherapy
in Switzerland in over a dozen
years. Suddenly, it seems that the ice age is
over, now that Peter Oehen, M.D., has
received full government approval for a
MAPS-sponsored study in Switzerland
investigating MDMA-assisted psychotherapy
as a treatment for subjects suffering
from chronic posttraumatic stress
disorder (PTSD). Following the LSD
symposium in Basel, the organizers of the
event sent an appeal–signed by all of the
speakers from the conference–to the
political authorities in Europe and the US,
urging them to facilitate scientific investigation
into the medicinal and therapeutic
potentials of LSD and other psychedelic
drugs. The Secretary of the Swiss Health
Department replied to this appeal by
writing that the Swiss authorities will give
permission for LSD research if ethical and
scientific requirements are fulfilled.
MAPS has pledged to donate $50,000
for this study, which MAPS has already
raised from the sale of art and books
signed by Albert Hofmann. MAPS is also
in the process of seeking to raise an
additional $100,000 for this study; please
contact MAPS if you are interested in
donating. Rick Doblin was enthusiastic
enough to state that we will have government
approval for this study by Albert
Hofmann’s 101st birthday in January
2007. I am happy to be infected by his
enthusiasm. Once approved, this study
will be the first LSD psychotherapy
research to take place in about 35 years! |