Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (Essay Sample)

Name:
University:
Course:
Instructor:
Date:
Literature Review: Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD)
Effects of LSD on the Body and the Brain
LSD is a widely and highly potent chemical which affects the users’ moods. After its discovery in 1938, its artificial production has spread over many countries. It is a product of lysergic acid which is commonly present in fungi, especially ergot. Ergot germinates and develops on grains such as rye.’ Commercially, it is available in form of capsules, liquids and tablets, thus its mode of usage is exclusively oral. Commonly, it added on papers with absorbent features, and then subdivided into pieces which are highly decorated. Each piece is deemed to be a singular dosage. The ensuing experiences (called “trips”), after its ingestion, are enduring, and may last for up to a whole day.’
The drug occasions hallucinations; weighty misrepresentations in individuals’ discernment of realism. The perceive images, sounds and images which appear to be actual but are illusory and experience rapid and intense swings in emotions. This is brought about by interferences in how various neurotransmitters, especially serotonin, interact with the neural cells. The system of serotonin is amply spread throughout the spinal cord as well as the brain and is linked with controlling perceptual, regulatory systems which entail hunger, temperature, sexual urges as well as moods, control of muscles and perception of sensations.’
The exact alterations on perception brought about by ingested LSD are not yet understood. There have been suggestions that, like all plants which are hallucinogenic, LSD impacts on particular receptors of serotonin (5-HT2), with the effects being marked into regions with the brain; LC (locus ceruleus) and CC (cerebral cortex). CC involves controlling of perception, cognition as well as moods while LC is the predominant receiver or detector of signals of sensation, especially for significant externally-originating stimuli. LSD’s effects set in after about half an hour after it is ingested, with the “trips” being described as having become “bad” if the effects or experiences are acute.’
Most of the “trips” entail both enjoyable and distasteful aspects with the effects being highly erratic and varying according the LSD amounts consumed as well the users’ expectations, circumstances, moods and personality. LSD’s effects on the body include, enhancement of the pressure of blood as well as heart rates, diminished appetites, dizziness and drying of the mouth. Others include nausea, sweating, body tremors and numbness. Nevertheless, the chief effects can be seen on the sensory and the emotional states. There are rapid emotional shifts ranging from euphoria to fear; the rapidity at times heightens as to have the user experiences varied emotions concurrently.
LSD effects upon senses are highly dramatic; smells, colors, sounds along with all other sensations become acutely intensified and magnified. Perceptions of the sensations at times blend (synesthesia). Individuals experiencing synesthesia seem as if they feel or hear colorations and sight sounds. The hallucinations also entail illusory perceptions of transformations or distortions of movements as well as shapes, as well as time which is viewed as passing off too slowly. Some LSD users feel as if their bodies’ shapes are being altered. Some of the “trips” are typified by enjoyable and mind-stimulating sensations, producing feelings of augmented understanding. The “bad” ones entail thoughts which nightmarish as well as terrifying; with lots of despair, anxiety and fears about loss of self-control, death or insanity.
All these effects are occasioned by the drug, distorting psychoses and disorganizing individual’s abilities of recognizing actuality, rational thinking and their communication. Some users undergo psychologically devastating effects which may endure following the “trips”, occasioning almost permanent states which are psychotic in their character. Enduring psychosis caused by the drug might entail dramatic swings in moods; fluctuating through hallucinations, profound clinical depressions, vibrant visual troubles and mania. Such psychosis may go on for numerous years, affecting even those with no determined histories of mental disorders.
In a number of users, some “flashback” experiences are reported. Such experiences are clinically referred as HPPD (Hallucinogen Post Perceptual Disorder). HPPD’s experiences are impulsive, habitual, occasionally unremitting reappearances of various sensory misrepresentations initially created by the drug. HPPD might entail hallucinations, but is commonly typified by illustrative disturbances like sighting of fake movements about a vision-field’s edges, colored and bright flashes, and object-attachments like trails and radiances. The “flashback” experiences are characteristically unremitting, and may persist for numerous years, following LSD-usage.
Heightened degrees of LSD-dependency rapidly develop in users following recurring uses with the users requiring gradually more dosages toward generation of comparable effects. The drug also induces tolerances for more hallucinogenic substances like mescaline as well as psilocybin. But no such tolerances have been reported in the case of cannabis, PCP or even amphetamines. These might be because the cannabis, PCP or even amphetamines do not directly affect receptors of serotonin like LSD. The tolerances are only transitory, lost in stoppage of the use of LSD, even for a day or so.’
Medicinal Uses of LSD
In the 1950s and the 60s, some governments allowed for experimentations employing LSD, with an objective of creating LSD-based weapons for usage in warfare. During this period, numerous psychiatrists also took keen interest in the drug. They were convinced that despite the then ongoing marginalization of LSD, it had probable benefits to humanity as psychotherapeutic supplements or in pious activities like meditations. From then, studies have been conducted to establish the probable benefits, especially in controlling anxiety in patients who are terminally-sick.’
A study conducted by SMSPT’s (Swiss Medical Society for Psycholytic Therapy) Gasser showed that psychedelics who had LSD administered on them, showed remarkable, favorable improvements in their emotions, with none of them experiencing fright, or further toward reactions. Some of the patients were capable of conquering their persistent anxieties, thus easing their return to employment. The experimentation took place under stringent timelines, in hushed, pitch-black rooms, replete with crisis medical gears. All subjects underwent psychological evaluations as well as psychotherapeutic sessions before ingesting the LSD dosages.’
Another research has indicated that LSD may be effective if employed to enhance creativity and modifying conscious awareness. There is lots of promise that LSD may in future become highly applicable in and effective for psychotherapeutic interventions for psychedelics. From past researches, it is notable that therapeutic concerns in LSD stem from the certainties that in past experimentations, the involve subjects appear to be less anxious, guilty and depressed as well as more tolerant, self-appreciating and with more sensual alertness.’
Over the years, lots of interest has also stemmed from apparent probabilities of usage of strong psychedelic occurrences of concentrated transference, figurative drama, abreaction and regression in improving psychodynamic psychotherapeutic outcomes. Foremost, two therapy natures have emerged, with one employing conversational and mystical experiences while the other makes psychoanalysis-like unconscious explorations. The first of the psychedelic therapies (employing conversational and mystical experiences) entailed usage of 200µg or larger amounts of LSD for each session.
The dosages were found to be potentially supportive of reforming criminals as well as and enhancing livelihoods in the general populace. In the second form (using psychoanalysis-like unconscious explorations and often called the PP, “Psycholytic Therapy”) entailed the utilization of smaller, multiple LSD dosages for each sessions or a multiple of sessions. The PP was mainly employed for disorders which were psychosomatic or even neurotic. In reality, numerous permutations, distinctions, and extraordinary applications bearing both psychedelic and psycholytic features involving LSD are commonly in use.’
Bibliography
Aghajanian, George, “Mescaline and LSD facilitate the activation of locus coeruleus
neurons by peripheral stimuli.” Brain Res 186(1980):492–498
Aghajanian, George. Electrophysiology of serotonin receptor subtypes and signal
transduction mechanisms. In Bloom FE, Kupfer DJ (eds), Psychopharmacology: The Fourth Generation of Progress. New York, Raven Press, 1995
Aghajanian, George and Gerard Marek. “Serotonin and Hallucinogens.” Neuropsychopharmacology 1(1999): 16S-23S
Albert, Kurland. The Therapeutic Potential of LSD in Medicine. In R. DeBold and R.
Leaf, eds., LSD, Man, and Society. Middletown, Corm.: Wesleyan University Press, 1967
Glass, Nigel. “Discoverer of LSD Urges Medical Use of the Drug,” Reuters Health, April
16, 2003, accessed May 11, 2012, /media/reutershealth4.16.03.html
Grinspoon, Lester and James Bakalar. “Medical Uses of Illicit Drugs,” Schaffer Library,
accessed May 11, 2012, /schaffer/hemp/medical/meduse.htm
MAPS. “R & D Medicines: LSD/Psilocybin for Anxiety-Related and Life-Threatening
Illn...