After more than 40 years the first study employing LSD in psychotherapy is being conducted in Switzerland. 12 persons suffering from a life-threatening disease and an anxiety disorder are having the possibility to receive 200µg of LSD in a therapeutic setting. This talk will present the methodology and set-up of the study lead by Dr. P. Gasser. Furthermore the results from the pilot interviews of the follow-up study will be debuted. The interviews were conducted approximately one year after finishing the therapy and were aimed to reveal effects on daily life and long-term changes. Even though it is too early to make generally valid statements, first impressions from the client-centered research give valuable ideas for further research and indicate potential problems.
About Katharina Kirchner
Katharina Kirchner is currently involved with the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) as an assistant to Dr. P. Gasser for the study of “LSD-assisted psychotherapy in persons suffering from anxiety associated with advanced-stage life-threatening diseases”. She conducted her master thesis in “LSD-supported psychotherapy, effects on daily life and long term changes”, supervised by Dr. P. Gasser & Dr. R. Stohler. Prior she joined a research project in Harare, Zimbabwe, for two months, which concerned the social- psychological evaluation of the implementation of solar disinfected water (SODIS)-strategy, in cooperation with UZH, ETH Zürich and EAWAG.
