Can Hallucinogens Help the Mentally Ill?

N E W   Y O R K, March 22 -- Could ’shrooms or LSD help the mentally ill?

At Harvard, a psychiatrist is studying whether the hallucinogenic cactus peyote creates any long-term memory or attention problems in the American Indians who take the drug as part of religious rituals.

A University of Arizona psychiatrist is poised to begin researching whether taking the hallucinogen psilocybin under controlled circumstances may help people suffering with obsessive compulsive disorder.

And another Harvard psychiatrist is in the beginning phases of designing a protocol that may employ LSD or another hallucinogen to see if it helps terminally ill people suffering from depression and pain.

With some support from the private New Mexico-based Heffter Institute, these researchers, along with others in the United States and abroad, represent a small movement of scientists looking at the possible medical benefits of hallucinogens for some psychiatric conditions.

Hallucinogens Among Oldest Drugs

Hallucinogens are among the oldest known group of drugs that have been used for their ability to alter human perception and mood, according to the Drug Enforcement Agency. They have been used for medical, social and religious practices.

More recently, synthetic hallucinogens have been used recreationally, with hippies from the '60s, such as the now deceased ex-Harvard psychology professor Timothy Leary, first promoting their use with the famous slogan, “Turn on, Tune in, Drop Out.”

Today, hallucinogens are deemed drugs of abuse by the DEA, with no known medical benefit. Approximately 8 percent to 10 percent of high school seniors tried a hallucinogen in the past year according to a University of Michigan study of drug use.

It remains unclear how these drugs exert their action in the brain, but anecdotal evidence and some earlier studies indicate they may help a variety of psychiatric conditions, says David E. Nichols, founder of the Heffter Institute, in Santa Fe, and professor of medical chemistry and molecular pharmacology at Purdue School of Pharmacy in West Lafayette, Ind.