PATIENTS TO SUE HEALTH SERVICE OVER LSD TREATMENT

Former patients who claim that their lives were ruined after being
prescribed LSD between 1950 and the early Seventies were last night
preparing to launch a multi-million pound compensation claim against the
NHS.

Psychiatrists routinely administered large doses of LSD to patients
suffering symptoms from morning sickness to post-natal depression and
phobias. Many have been left suffering hallucinations, acute anxiety,
depression, memory loss and mental illness, lawyers claimed yesterday.

Alexander Harris, a legal firm from Altrincham, Greater Manchester, which is
representing 82 former patients, yesterday announced that a cut-off date for
joining the litigation had been set for Feb 29, 2000. The case is expected
to be heard within the next year.

The group will argue that psychiatrists at more than 20 NHS institutions
prescribed an unlicensed drug to hundreds of patients without proper
consent. If successful, some claimants stand to receive more than pounds
100,000 compensation. The total bill for the NHS could amount to more than
pounds 4 million.

Emma Smith, of Alexander Harris, said: "The worst cases are those involving
people who have never been able to return to work. In the 1950s to the early
1970s LSD was administered by the NHS for a wide range of conditions, on the
basis that it opened up patients' minds more quickly than a process of
normal therapy."

One claimant, Valerie Bateson, of Radcliffe, Greater Manchester, was
suffering from post-natal depression at the time of her voluntary admission
to St Thomas's Hospital, Stockport, in 1964. Mrs Bateson, 57, said: "I'd
feel wobbly and odd, then drift off into dreams. Sometimes I would wander
off into a different part of the hospital. When I came round I'd be
paralysed. It was a full day before I could use my legs again."

Angela Scrivens, from Blackburn, Lancs, was given the LSD treatment once a
week for six years. She was 18 when she was admitted to Burnley General
Hospital in 1963 suffering from severe depression and anxiety. Mrs Scrivens,
53, said: "It was like a waking nightmare. I'd feel sick then have
hallucinations. The effects went on all day."