LSD and Addiction

The most promising, and the most studied, use of psychedelics is to treat addiction.  These studies focus on alcoholism because of its legal status, and LSD because of its availability when these studies were conducted.  When LSD was first introduced into the pharmaceutical community, its most promising use was considered to be treating alcoholism, and was even endorsed by Alcoholics Anonymous co-founder Bill Wilson.  In a retrospective analysis of past research, neuroscientist Teri Krebs and clinical psychologist Pål-Ørjan Johansen found that in randomized studies comparing LSD to a placebo control, "59% of people receiving LSD reported lower levels of alcohol misuse, compared to 38% of people who received a placebo".  

A single study, published and widely circulated in 1964 by  Smart and Storm, found there was no difference in treating potential for LSD versus a placebo, and that neither were effective at treating alcoholics.  However, this study administered LSD to patients in a hospital setting, where the subject lay strapped into a hospital bed and was questioned by doctors.  The problem with this study is that the subjects did not participate in therapy of any kind.  When someone takes LSD and trips, they become oversensitive to their surroundings and the mindset it gives them, and being strapped to a bed a questioned by doctors in white coats could easily cause a very paranoid, fearful trip.  While the conclusion was originally that LSD was ineffective at treating alcoholism, with a better understanding of psychedelic drugs the study only shows that LSD alone cannot treat alcoholism, it acts as an aid for therapy.

In contrast, 2 doctors, Dr. Abram Hoffer and Dr. Humphrey Osmond, ran a continuous, uncontrolled study using LSD on alcoholics as an aid to therapy and found that about 50% of these alcoholics, who before had been resistive to Alcoholics Anonymous, were treated of their disease.  In fact, almost all studies that use this psychedelic therapy method found that LSD was 50% effective at treating their patients.  In addition, all of these studies were conducted before new and better therapeutic methodologies like motivational interviewing and cognitive behavior therapy, and the combination of these new therapies and LSD could yield an even better success rate.

Both scientists and users agree that LSD is not physically addictive, despite its Schedule 1 label.  Although it is possible to become addicted to anything from heroin to internet porn to pudding cups, LSD doesn't hook it's users like nicotine or crack does.  This is a contrast to the last drug cure for alcoholism, which led to an epidemic of morphine addicts.