LSD Flashcards
Which short-term physiological symptoms are induced by LSD?
Moderately increased blood pressure, heart rate, body temperature and pupil size.
Which short-term experiences are induced by LSD?
- Blissful state
- Audiovisual synesthesia
- Changes in the meaning of perception
- Positively experienced derealisation and depersonalisation
- Insightfulness
- Increased suggestibility
- Mystical experiences
- Cognitive disorganisation and delusional thinking
What are unwanted (i.e adverse) effects of LSD use?
- Difficulty concentrating
- Headache
- Dizziness
- Lack of appetite
- Dry mouth
- Nausea
- Imbalance
- Feeling exhausted
- Flashbacks
What are clinically significant flashbacks referred to as?
Hallucinogen Persisting Perception Disorder (HPPD)
Is LSD toxic/addictive?
LSD is physically non-toxic/ also not addictive
Which neuronal receptors does LSD bind to?
LSD potently binds to human serotonin (5-Hydroxytryptamine (5-HT)) : 5-HT1A, 5-HT2A, 5-HT2C, dopamine D2 and alpha2 adrenergic receptors.
And less potently to: alpha1 adrenergic, D1 and D3 receptors
Experimental research: How does LSD alter emotional processing?
Impaired recognition of sad and fearful faces.
Enhanced emotional empathy.
Impaired identification of complex emotions.
Experimental research: How does LSD alter music processing?
LSD enhanced the emotional response to music and produced greater feelings of wonder and transcendence.
It also increased ratings to music excerpts that were previously meaningless or neutral. Therefore LSD attributed meaning to previously meaningless stimuli.
Experimental research: How does LSD alter cerebral blood flow in arterial spin labelling (ASL)?
ASL analyses revealed greater cerebral blood flow in the visual cortex that was induced by LSD and this increase was associated with rating of complex imagery on the 5 dimensional - altered states of consciousness (5D-ASC) scale.
Experimental research: How does LSD alter resting-state functional connectivity (rs-fMRI)?
LSD increased measures of “brain entropy” (i.e. the predictability of rs-fMRI time series) across many functional systems. LSD increased thalamocortical rest-state functional connectivity, overall connectivity in high-level cortical regions and the thalamus, and connectivity between normally more dissociated rest-state networks.
Clinical research: For which disorders is LSD treatment currently investigated?
In the 50s-70s there was research on patients with anxiety, cancer, depressive disorders, cluster headaches.
There was then nothing done for forty years.
Current research is limited to patients with life threatening diseases who are suffering also from anxiety, MDD, GAD.
Clinical research: What are societal challenges for conducting clinical studies/trials with LSD?
Clinical studies are extremely costly due to overregulation.
Also, industry funding is highly unlikely.
Due to scheduling (illegality) of LSD research is impeded and also prohibited.
