230 LSD
poisoning. With varying degrees of success LSD has been used to treat neu-
roses, sexual disorders,heroinaddiction, alcoholism, and psychopathology.
The drug has also been given to reduce cancer pain, to supplement drugs
used for pain relief in surgery, and to treat phantom limb pain (a sensation
that an amputated limb is still present and hurting). After legal LSD research
was phased out in the 1970s, relatively little new information has emerged
about the drug. In subsequent years even reports in scientific literature occa-
sionally had a casualness not often associated with science. For example, in
1997 a medical journal published a report about “presumed LSD intoxica-
tions,” but medical personnel did not confirm that their patients had taken
the drug.
Drawbacks.Although LSD fatalities have been reported in animal experi-
mentation, by the 1990s no human overdose deaths had been documented
despite LSD’s tremendous potency. An overdose nonetheless can produce a
physical collapse requiring hospitalization. In a population of psychiatric pa-
tients who took the drug, only 2 in 1,000 had a resultant psychosis lasting
more than 48 hours; such a result was even less frequent for psychologically
normal persons. In the 1990s, however, one review of LSD research noted that
lengthy psychoses can be instituted by the substance. Research found that the
suicide rate for psychiatric patients who used the drug under medical super-
vision was the same as for other psychiatric patients, indicating LSD might
present no peril in that regard—although this aspect might be different in
uncontrolled circumstances.
The drug’s physical effects can include headache, nausea, vomiting, hot or
cold feelings, sweating, elevated body temperature, trembling, dizziness,
blood pressure changes (up or down), increased heart rate, numb hands, sen-
sitive hearing, and extra urine production. In dog experiments the substance
reduced appetite.
Rat experimentation shows that administering LSD for a month can alter
brain structure and chemistry. LSD has been reported to impair abstract think-
ing, but one commentary on those reports noted that alcohol abuse among
the studied persons might also explain their thinking problems. Brief visual
afterimages (such as happens when someone looks at a bright object and then
sees an image of it in opposite colors for a few seconds after looking away)
are normal for everyone, but a formal experiment and a few case reports note
lengthy visual afterimages in proper colors among LSD users. These are not
flashbacks, incidentally.
Flashbacks are one of the most publicized effects of LSD. Flashback is a
reappearance of LSD actions without taking a dose. This phenomenon is nor-
mal in other contexts; something may remind a person of an event that had
high emotional content, and the memory may flood one’s consciousness and
temporarily sweep aside awareness of one’s surroundings. People are usually
able to push out of an LSD flashback if they wish and are not taken over by
it; a survey of 247 persons who experienced LSD flashbacks found only 1 who
claimed to be unable to stop the experience at will. A case report indicates
behavior therapy can stop LSD flashbacks, implying that their cause may have
more to do with psychology than chemistry. Another case report notes ad-
ditional evidence that personality affects likelihood of flashback. Still another
