LSD's value as a treatment for alcoholism has been overlooked for decades, according to researchers revisiting old studies. A team that analyzed six separate studies from the '60s found that a single dose of the psychedelic drug had a "significant beneficial effect" on alcoholics that lasted for months, the BBC reports. Some 59% of test subjects, all of whom were in alcohol treatment programs, showed reduced levels of alcohol after taking the drug, compared to 38% of those in control groups. Research into how LSD could treat addiction stopped in the late '60s as legal troubles arose.
After taking the drug, "many patients claim that they get significant insights into their problems, that they get a new perspective on their problems and motivation to solve them," one of the study's authors says. "It also seems that some people are prepared to be more self-accepting, and able to see negative consequences and happenings in their own lives." Asked whether getting drunks to drop acid would be just replacing one addiction with another, he said: "Psychedelics are not known to be toxic to the body or dependence-producing," the Province notes. (More LSD stories.)
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