Phase one results of clinical trials for microdosing Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD) in healthy adult patients have officially been released. The study conducted in the UK, was primarily to explore the effects, tolerability, and safety of periodic LSD microdoses. This, they hope will lead to further tests to determine how helpful LSD microdosing could be for Alzheimer’s patients.
Phase one was conducted with 48 healthy adults, whose average age was 63 years old. The doctors randomly administered doses of 5, 10, 20 μg of LSD, or a placebo, every four days. Over three weeks the subjects were given a total of six doses. So far, the results have not shown any cognitive benefits from the microdosing, however, they did demonstrate the method was safe enough to proceed to the next step. The doctors found no abnormalities in heart rate, blood pressure, or EKG measurements both during the testing and one month after the trial. The study published in the journal Psychopharmacology.
Robin Carhart-Harris, head of the Center for Psychedelic Research at Imperial College of London, said:
The study provides reassuring safety data and opens the door for larger-scale clinical trials to evaluate the potential therapeutic effects of LSD.
One of the effects of LSD and other psychedelics is to stimulate serotonin 5-HT2A receptors in our brain. These receptors mediate cognitive function, and the administering of psychedelics has shown the ability to change the communication process between these receptors to help symptoms of anxiety and depression, and early-onset Alzheimer’s.
Co-author of the study, Charles Nichols, explains:
Our research with serotonin 5-HT2A receptor agonists, such as LSD, suggest that they may represent a new strategy to treat diseases associated with chronic inflammation. LSD’s unique polypharmacology may serve to enhance its capacity to simultaneously modulate multiple key pathological processes in the brain associated with Alzheimer’s disease, including neuroinflammation, [which] are implicated in its progression from mild cognitive impairment.
This is the second study regarding LSD and the effects it can have on our mood and cognitive function. Earlier this year, researchers from the University of Chicago had a trial that studied the physiological effects of LSD microdoses. The researchers in Chicago only administered one microdose, one time per week for four weeks. They determined that 13 μg is the highest dose recommended for microdosing without showing signs of impairment for everyday functioning, and anything over 26 μg started giving the patients “drug-like sensations.” The Chicago research team did point out, they were not permitted to investigate long term effects of microdosing.
The simple fact that these trials are being conducted and supported may lead to exciting discoveries that many shaman and ancient cultures have known for a long time, psychedelics are much more than recreational drugs. Taken or administered with care and intention, these drugs or plants can help heal us along with unlocking our true potential as a human race.
In the United States, stage 2 trials have been approved by the FDA for further study into psilocybin for treatment with Major Depressive Disorder, and Johns Hopkins University has opened a research center to study psychedelics such as LSD and Psilocybin.
Alzheimer’s and depression are two major diseases found throughout the world, hopefully, these studies are just the beginning of what we can learn.
