Treatment of Alcoholism with Lysergide

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Abstract
Previous studies have shown that alcoholics improved after treatment with a single massive dose of lysergide. To test the effectiveness of lysergide as part of the general alcoholism treatment program at Mendocino State Hospital, Calif., 71 women alcoholics, in groups of 1 to 4, were given an average of 400 [mu]g of lysergide in the morning in a pleasant private room with comfortable chairs and concert music; 15 patients were given lysergide during a pilot phase; 29 had 1 lysergide session; 18, 2 sessions; and 9, 3 sessions. Their mean age was 41 years and they had a mean of 7.82 years of excessive dringking. Each patient had a therapist throughout the rest of the day. An attempt to make the experiment double-blind by giving a group of patients scopolomine instead of lysergide was abandoned because both patients and therapists became aware which patients had been given lysergide. Three sessions were terminated because of an asthmatic attack, an epileptic seizure and a disturbed emotional reaction. The patients given lysergide and a control group of 37 women who received the standard treatment program were followed-up for 6, 12 and 18 mo. The lysergide patients were not noticeably more abstinent than the control patients at 18 mo.; on a scale in which 2 = worse, 3 = same, 4 = improved, 5 = much improved, the average score of the control group was 4.03, of the pilot group, 3.70 and of the lysergide group, 3.97. Nor was any difference found between the groups given, 1, 2 or 3 sessions. No significant differences in work history or improvement in social life or social relations were found between the experimental and control groups. No correlation between scores on the Mindlin Prognostic Index and outcome were found; nor between age, history of delirium tremens, history of arrests, length of excessive drinking: and outcome. The patients[image] written accounts of the lysergide experience (samples of which are given) and results of the Blewett Scale of Psychedelic Reactions showed that most patients achieved the transcendent state. Though it did not increase the patients'' abstinence, the ability of lysergide to break through the patients[image] facade and reveal their real concerns was impressive.

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