Back to the future: A return to psychedelic treatment models for addiction

Abstract

The discovery of the 5HT2aR agonist hallucinogen (i.e. classic psychedelic) lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) by Albert Hofmann in 1943 was a global watershed event. Not only did it spark wide interest in the nature of consciousness and the role of neurotransmission in brain function, it opened new avenues of potential treatment for a range of mental health conditions (Hofmann, 2013). The scientific community of the 1950s through the early 1970s responded to Hofmann’s discovery by producing more than 1000 manuscripts describing the treatment of 40,000 patients (Nutt et al., 2013). Despite promising if not remarkable indications of efficacy (Krebs and Johansen, 2012; Savage and McCabe, 1973),sensationalized reports of recreational LSD use prompted legal restrictions that ultimately rendered research with LSD and …

Hendricks, P. S. (2014). Back to the future: A return to psychedelic treatment models for addiction. Journal of Psychopharmacology, 28(11), 981-982. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0269881114550935
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