LSD as Therapy

In the fall of 1965, Harvard professor Timothy Leary embarked on the Harvard Psilocybin Project in the hopes of finding new ways to reform convicted criminals, treat alcoholism, and help the population at large.

Leary’s project was shut down, but decades later, hallucinogens retained their mystique in popular culture. Benicio del Toro espoused the benefits of LSD to client Hunter S. Thompson, played by Johnny Depp, in the 1998 cult favorite Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

Your attorney probably won’t recommend a dose of whatever’s in that brown bottle, but your doctor might. The medical and psychological community is studying hallucinogenics with renewed interest. The journal Neurology recently reported that LSD can be more effective than migraine medication for treating cluster headaches, and a study from the University of Arizona found that psychedelic mushrooms can offer temporary relief from Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.

Arran Frood has been investigating the mental health community’s acceptance of hallucinogens for the Telegraph UK and joins us on the line now from England with more on the mental health community’s renewed interest in hallucinogenic drugs.

Telegraph UK: Can mind-altering drugs have mental health benefits?

Nature News: Ecstasy could augment the benefits of psychotherapy

Nature News: Illegal drug shows promise in treating trauma symptoms

The Independent: LSD Cured My Headache

(Photo courtesy Mod as Hell via Flickr/CreativeCommons)