Taking a high dose of LSD, coupled with assisted therapy, led to “greater reductions in depression” among patients compared to those who received a low dose of the psychedelic, according to a new study.
Researchers at the University of Basel in Switzerland investigated the therapeutic potential of LSD for people with moderate-to-severe major depressive disorder, and they found the substance showed “promise” as a “novel approach” to treating the condition.
Notably, the study—published this month in the journal Med—indicated that “high-dose-LSD-assisted therapy reduced depressive symptoms more than low-dose therapy” and that the improvements lasted for up to 12 weeks after the treatment.
The randomized, double-blind trial involved administering doses of 100μg and 200μg of LSD for one cohort and two doses of 25μg of the psychedelic for the other. Symptoms of depression were measured at multiple intervals, starting with the baseline and followed up with examinations after two weeks, six weeks and 12 weeks.
After assessing the 61 patients post-administration, the researchers concluded that the “findings of this exploratory study support further investigation of LSD-assisted therapy in depression in a larger phase 3 trial.”
“The present trial’s strengths include a clinically representative sample with respect to the duration of illness, common comorbid conditions, and various pretreatments,” the study authors said. “Other strengths include the comparison with a low-dose group and a relatively long follow-up period of 12 weeks after the last administration.”
“LSD could be used safely within the framework of this study,” they said, adding that compared to previous trials involving psilocybin, “LSD has a longer duration of action.”
“This prolonged effect makes clinical application more resource intensive. It remains to be resolved whether this extended duration offers clinical advantages,” the study text says. “Furthermore, it is yet to be determined if there are other relevant differences among hallucinogenic drugs in terms of therapeutic potential.”
Hellbound and Down 