Clinical Trials Test Potential of Hallucinogenic Drugs to Help
Patients With Terminal Illnesses

First Test of 'Psychedelic Psychotherapy' Since 70s

Researchers Hope Effects Will Improve Quality of Life

Scientists are exploring the use of psychedelic drugs such as LSD to
treat a range of ailments from depression to cluster headaches and
obsessive compulsive disorder.

The first clinical trial using LSD since the 1970s began in
Switzerland in June. It aims to use "psychedelic psychotherapy" to
help patients with terminal illnesses come to terms with their
imminent mortality and so improve their quality of life.

Another psychedelic substance, psilocybin - the active ingredient in
magic mushrooms, has shown promising results in trials for treating
symptoms of terminal cancer patients. And researchers are using MDMA
(ecstasy) as an experimental treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder.

In the Swiss trial eight subjects will receive a dose of 200
microgrammes of LSD. This is enough to induce a powerful psychedelic
experience and is comparable to what would be found in an "acid tab"
bought from a street drug dealer. A further four subjects will
receive a dose of 20 microgrammes. Every participant will know they
have received some LSD, but neither the subjects nor the researchers
observing them will know for certain who received the full dose.
During the course of therapy researchers will assess the patients'
anxiety levels, quality of life and pain levels.

Before hallucinogenic drugs became popular with the counter culture,
they were at the forefront of brain science. They were used to help
scientists understand the nature of consciousness and how the brain
works and as treatments for a range of conditions including alcohol dependence.

Charles Grob, a professor of psychiatry at the Harbor-UCLA Medical
Centre, is in the vanguard of the resurgence of scientific interest
in psychedelics, having recently completed a trial that used
psilocybin to help patients with terminal cancer come to terms with
their illness. "I think there's a perception these compounds hold
untapped potential to help us understand the human mind," he said.

The way hallucinogens such as LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide),
psilocybin and mescaline (the active ingredient in the peyote cactus)
act on the brain is reasonably well understood by scientists. The
drugs stick to chemical receptors on nerve cells that normally bind
the neurotransmitter serotonin, which affects a broad range of brain
activities. But how this leads to the profoundly altered states of
consciousness, perception and mood that typically accompany a "trip"
is not known.

Prof Roland Griffiths at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in
Baltimore Maryland recently published a study of 36 healthy
volunteers who were given psilocybin and then observed in the lab.
The participants' ages ranged from 24 to 64 and none had taken
hallucinogens before. When the group were interviewed again 14 months
later 58% said they rated the experience as being among the five most
personally meaningful of their lives, 67% said it was in their top
five spiritual experiences, and 64% said it had increased their
well-being or life satisfaction.

"The working hypothesis is that if psilocybin or LSD can occasion
these experiences of great personal meaning and spiritual
significance .. then it would allow [patients with terminal
illnesses] hopefully to face their own demise completely differently
- to restructure some of the psychological angst that so often occurs
concurrently with severe disease," said Griffiths. So by expanding
their consciousness during a session on the drug, the patient is able
to comprehend their thoughts and feelings from a new perspective.
This can lead to a release of negative emotions that leaves them in a
much more positive state of mind.

Twelve patients with terminal cancer have already helped Grob to test
this idea and, although the research is not yet published, anecdotal
reports from some subjects are encouraging. Pamela Sakuda (see below)
was diagnosed with stage 4 colorectal cancer in December 2002. Her
husband, Norbert Litzinger, said the psilocybin treatment transformed
her outlook.

"Pamela had lost hope. She wasn't able to make plans for the future.
She wasn't able to engage the day as if she had a future left," he
said. Her "epiphany" during the treatment was the realisation that
her fear about the disease was destroying the remaining time she had
left, he said.

Despite fears that psychedelic drugs can induce psychosis, they are
comparatively safe when administered with the proper precautions and
with trained medical professionals present, according to a manual for
studying their effects, which was recently published in the Journal
of Psychopharmacology.

They do have a powerful effect on a person's perception and
consciousness and cannot be considered "safe", but they are almost
entirely nontoxic, they virtually never lead to addiction and they
only rarely lead to long-lasting psychosis (usually in people with a
family history of mental illness). The main danger is that the person
taking the drug injures him or herself while in a mind-altered state,
for example because they think they can fly. The manual states, for
example, that, "investigators need to be confident that the volunteer
could not exit the window if in a delusional state". Griffiths does
not advocate recreational use.

Since the 1970s, scientific research into the effects hallucinogenic
drugs have on the brain and their potential benefits has become a
pariah field for any scientist who wanted to keep their reputation -
and funding - intact. The psychologist Timothy Leary was the most
famous advocate of the scientific and recreational use of psychedelic
drugs. He conducted experiments at Harvard that were widely
criticised and he was accused of faking data.

"The way I view it is we experienced some kind of broad cultural
trauma back in the 60s and these drugs became demonised in that
context," said Griffiths. "As a culture we just decided clinical
research shouldn't be done with this class of compounds," he said.
"This was partly the federal regulatory authorities, it was partly
the funding agencies and it was partly the academics themselves ...
Leary had so discredited a scientific approach to studying these
compounds that anyone who expressed an interest in doing so was
automatically discredited."

Dr Rick Doblin is president of the Multidisciplinary Association for
Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) in California, a nonprofit organisation
which funds clinical studies into psychedelic drugs, including the
Swiss LSD trial. "These drugs, these experiences are not for the
mystic who wants to sit on the mountain top and meditate. They are
not for the counter-culture rebel. They are for everybody," he said.

[sidebar]

CASE STUDY

Edited Extract From an Interview Pamela Sakuda Did for Researchers on
the Psilocybin Experience

"As the session began, and as it built up, I felt this lump of
emotions welling up and firming up almost like an entity. I started
to cry a little. Then it started to dissipate and I started to look
at it differently and I think that is the beauty of being able to
expand your consciousness. I don't think the drug is the cause of
these things. I think it is a catalyst that allows you to release
your own thoughts and feelings from some place that you have bound
them to very tightly. I began to realise that all of this negative
fear and the guilt was such a hindrance to making the most of and
enjoying the healthy time that I'm having - however long it may be. I
was not utilising it to the best and enjoying my life because I was
so afraid of what wasn't there yet. These substances occur in our
natural world and people have been using them for thousands of years
to treat physical illness, to treat social and behavioural problems."