Safety and Efficacy of Lysergic Acid Diethylamide-Assisted Psychotherapy for Anxiety Associated With Life-threatening Diseases
2014/03/04 by Peter Gasser, Dominique Holstein, Yvonne Michel +5 · 755 citations
Medicine · Neuroscience · Psychology · #Adverse effect #Alternative medicine #Anxiety #Clinical psychology #Crossover study #Double blind #Internal medicine #Lysergic acid diethylamide #Medicine #Mental Health Research Topics #Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior #Placebo #Psychedelics and Drug Studies #Psychiatry #Psychology #Psychotherapist #Randomized controlled trial #Trait anxiety
paper · doi:10.1097/nmd.0000000000000113
published in The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 202(7), 513-520 (Lippincott Williams & Wilkins)
openalex publication_date 2014/03/04 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04
Abstract
A double-blind, randomized, active placebo-controlled pilot study was conducted to examine safety and efficacy of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD)-assisted psychotherapy in 12 patients with anxiety associated with life-threatening diseases. Treatment included drug-free psychotherapy sessions supplemented by two LSD-assisted psychotherapy sessions 2 to 3 weeks apart. The participants received either 200 μg of LSD (n = 8) or 20 μg of LSD with an open-label crossover to 200 μg of LSD after the initial blinded treatment was unmasked (n = 4). At the 2-month follow-up, positive trends were found via the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) in reductions in trait anxiety (p = 0.033) with an effect size of 1.1, and state anxiety was significantly reduced (p = 0.021) with an effect size of 1.2, with no acute or chronic adverse effects persisting beyond 1 day after treatment or treatment-related serious adverse events. STAI reductions were sustained for 12 months. These results indicate that when administered safely in a methodologically rigorous medically supervised psychotherapeutic setting, LSD can reduce anxiety, suggesting that larger controlled studies are warranted.
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