LSD

[[File:Ruby slippers image.jpg|thumb|right|165px|LSD blotters, maan.]]
{{Drugs}}
{{hatnote|Not to be confused with [[LDS]].}}
{{cquote|
You cannot say that LSD fries your brain because we've shown that if anything it makes your brain work better.
|||Interview with neuropsychopharmacologist David Nutt (52-insights.com)<ref name=vice/>}}

'''LSD''', lysergic acid diethylamide, or LSD-25, is a semi-synthetic [[psychedelic drug]] that is derived from ergot alkaloids, which occur naturally in some [[plant]] [[disease]]s that infect rye, <i>Achnatherum robustum</i> ("sleepy grass") and other grains. The substance can bring about changes in the [[human]] nervous system in such small quantities that it was not, at first, believed possible (threshold dose is generally believed to be 20 micrograms, though there is some evidence of LSD affecting mood at even lower doses<ref>[https://www.biologicalpsychiatryjournal.com/article/S0006-3223(19)31409-X/fulltext Acute Subjective and Behavioral Effects of Microdoses of Lysergic Acid Diethylamide in Healthy Human Volunteers] by Anya K. Bershad et al. (2019) ''Biological Psychiatry'' 86(10):792-800. doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2019.05.019.</ref>). Some have convinced themselves that they can see the "[[truth|true]]" [[reality]] on this reality-altering [[drug]].<ref>[https://www.reddit.com/r/Psychonaut/comments/hqzxuf/isolation_me_pen_and_markers_on_a4_2020/ Isolation, me, pen and markers on A4, 2020]. Reddit, 2020.</ref>. The Human imagination can sure be a vivid, strange thing sometimes.

==Uses==
LSD was used extensively in [[psychiatric]] research in the 1960s, but society was afraid of anything that could blow [[Aldous Huxley]]'s mind after ''Brave New World''; so they enacted legal measures that made researching the beneficial effects of any hallucinogens extremely difficult. Medically, LSD has been shown to treat the pain symptoms of cluster headaches in low doses,<ref>[https://www.nature.com/news/2006/060911/full/060911-5.html Dropping acid may help headaches: Cluster headache sufferers say LSD can abort attacks] by Arran Frood (September 13<sup>th</sup> 2006) ''Nature''.</ref> and along with other psychedelic hallucinogens has shown some potential in treating [[alcoholism]], [[nicotine]] addiction,<ref>[http://www.vice.com/read/quit-smoking-with-lsd-876 An LSD Trip Helped Me Quit Smoking] by Thijs Roes (October 8, 2014, 7:00am) ''Vice''.</ref> and [[post-traumatic stress disorder]]<ref>[https://academic.oup.com/ijnp/article/23/6/385/5805249 Reviewing the Potential of Psychedelics for the Treatment of PTSD] by Erwin Krediet et al. (2020) ''International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology' 23(6):385-400. doi:10.1093/ijnp/pyaa018.'</ref> in combination with standard psychotherapy (leading some to suspect that at least some 1960s users were self-medicating).

John Lilly experimented with giving LSD to [[dolphins]] to try to form computer terminal-assisted, linguistically-based inter-species communication. So far we haven't heard anything on how well it's worked.

==How LSD works==
At the basic level, what we know about LSD is that it is a serotonin agonist on various serotonin receptors subtypes<ref>Aghajanian, G. K., & Bing, O. H. (1964). Persistence of lysergic acid diethylamide in the plasma of human subjects. Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics, 5(5), 611-614. PMID: 14209776</ref> — in other words, LSD basically binds to all the places serotonin would normally bind to, and changes how they act. The trippy psychedelic effects are thought to mostly be due to acid’s effect on the 5-HT<sub>2A</sub> receptor.<ref>Moreno, J. L., Holloway, T., Albizu, L., Sealfon, S. C., & González-Maeso, J. (2011). Metabotropic glutamate mGlu2 receptor is necessary for the pharmacological and behavioral effects induced by hallucinogenic 5-HT2A receptor agonists. Neuroscience Letters, 493(3), 76-79. https://www.doi.org/10.1016/j.neulet.2011.01.046</ref> Interestingly, LSD also has effects on dopamine and norepinephrine receptors — which most other psychedelics do not.<ref>Marona-Lewicka, D., Thisted, R. A., & Nichols, D. E. (2005). Distinct temporal phases in the behavioral pharmacology of LSD: dopamine D2 receptor-mediated effects in the rat and implications for psychosis. Psychopharmacology, 180(3), 427-435. doi:10.1007/s00213-005-2183-9</ref> 

==Effects on performance==
In theory LSD should be a performance-''reducing'' drug; however, in 1970 All-Star [[Pittsburgh]] Pirates pitcher Dock Ellis managed to deliver a no-hitter against the San Diego [[Priest|Padres]] under the influence of acid.<ref>[http://www.snopes.com/sports/baseball/ellis.asp No Hitter]</ref> [[Steve Jobs]] also claimed that [[Microsoft]] would be, all-in-all, a more interesting software company if [[Bill Gates]] had ever done acid.<ref>"I wish him the best, I really do. I just think he and Microsoft are a bit narrow. He'd be a broader guy if he had dropped acid once or gone off to an ashram when he was younger." Steve Lohr. [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F04EED71139F931A25752C0A961958260&sec=technology&spon=&pagewanted=all "Creating Jobs."] ''The New York Times'' Magazine, 1997-01-12.</ref> However, in a 1994 interview with ''Playboy'' magazine, Gates implied he had.{{efn|{{cquote|My errant youth ended a long time ago. […] That was on the other side of that boundary. The young mind can deal with certain kinds of gooping around that I don't think at this age I could. I don't think you're as capable of handling lack of [[sleep]] or whatever challenges you throw at your body as you get older. However, I never missed a day of work.|||Bill Gates<ref>[http://www.thecorememory.com/The_Bill_Gates_Interview.pdf The Bill Gates Interview: A candid conversation with the sultan of software about outsmarting his rivals] (1994) ''Playboy''.</ref>}}}}

Recent studies involving [[MRI|fMRI]] scans of the [[human]] [[brain]] on acid have shown that it not only '''doesn't''' reduce brain activity, but does quite the opposite — it creates a hyperconnected state of awareness in which axonal signalling is formed between cortices and lobes of the brain that otherwise never connect or interact with one another. The result is a human brain in which nearly all cortices are functioning at an extremely high rate of connectivity; in other words, if the intense world [[hypothesis]]<ref>[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3010743/ The Intense World Theory – A Unifying Theory of the Neurobiology of Autism] by Kamila Markram & Henry Markram (2010) ''Front. Hum. Neurosci.'' 4:224. doi:10.3389/fnhum.2010.00224.</ref> is correct, this is in many ways artificially inducing an [[autistic]] state of mind.<ref>[http://www.nature.com/news/brain-scans-reveal-how-lsd-affects-consciousness-1.19727 Brain scans reveal how LSD affects consciousness: Drug researcher David Nutt discusses brain-imaging studies with hallucinogens] by Zoe Cormier (11 April 2016) ''Nature''.</ref> This state of overstimulated awareness can lead to potential fear and anxiety, especially if the user has pre-existing mental conditions, because all learned inhibition basically comes to the forefront of the conscious mind when using LSD. This means that repressed thoughts and memories become intensely vivid and inescapable — which has potential therapeutic use for obvious reasons, especially in the treatment of [[PTSD]]<ref>[http://www.maps.org/research/psilo-lsd LSD-Assisted Psychotherapy: MAPS has completed the first double-blind, placebo-controlled study of the therapeutic use of LSD in human beings since the early 1970s.] ''Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies''.</ref> — but in an uncontrolled environment, it can lead to a really bad damn trip.

Studies suggest that LSD might be somewhat effective in the treatment of Parkinson's disease — indeed, some of the prescription drugs that are prescribed by hospitals to treat Parkinson's are even modeled directly after LSD itself — for instance, {{wpl|Lisuride||.}} Interestingly enough, a wide variety of drugs modeled from or pharmacologically similar<ref group=note>In layman's terms, this means they target many of the same receptors, and have a similar effect on brain chemistry.</ref> to LSD have often been used to treat a wide variety of physical illnesses, including (but not limited to) brain tumors,<ref>{{wpa|Cabergoline}}</ref> dementia, and strokes.<ref>{{wpa|Ergoloid}}</ref>

If you're a scientist like [[Francis Crick]],{{efn|Disclaimer: Francis Crick is an [[asshole]] who came up with his ideas based on stealing work of Rosalind Franklin, so he isn't exactly a great example.}} however, using LSD might lead to the discovery of something as revolutionary as [[DNA]].<ref>[http://www.cracked.com/article_16532_the-5-greatest-things-ever-accomplished-while-high.html The 5 Greatest Things Ever Accomplished While High] by Jack O'Brien (August 04, 2008) ''Cracked''.</ref> (Side effects may include acquiring a taste for [[Faraday cage|tinfoil]] [[Tinfoil hat|haberdashery]].) Or… if you're Kary Mullis,{{efn|Also a lousy example because Mullis came down with a bad case of possibly acid-induced [[Nobel disease]].}} LSD might help you (allegedly) invent PCR and kickstart a new era of biology research.

==Permafrying myth==
From an interview with pharmacologist {{wpl|David E. Nichols|David Nichols:}}<ref name=vice>[https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/78wwxq/is-it-a-myth-that-lsd-can-permanently-fry-your-brain Is It a Myth That LSD Can Permanently Fry Your Brain? Pharmacologist David Nichols told me that permanent acid trips make no medical sense.] by Mike Pearl (February 5, 2017, 9:00pm) ''Vice''.</ref>
{{quotebox|
'''VICE:''' This study shows that acid sticks in people's serotonin receptors, maybe for days at a time. Can it stay in there forever and make people "permafried"?

'''David Nichols:''' It's pretty much a [[myth]], [but] there are certain people who have a predisposition to certain types of mental illness — [[schizophrenia]] is the most commonly known one — those people will eventually develop schizophrenia. It hits you in your late teens and early 20s. So any kind of stressful event will cause the onset of that disorder. It's a developmental disorder, in the development of the cortex. So a lot of kids, they go off to college, and in that first semester, you're diagnosed with schizophrenia. Students [normally] have to go home because it's the stress, but they were primed for [schizophrenia]. Well, people who are primed for it, if they take a lot of LSD, it can trigger the onset of actual [[psychosis]].
}}

{{quotebox|
'''VICE:''' Yeah, but what if I take a really, really big dose?

'''David Nichols:''' In most circles, if you're mentally healthy, and you're not predisposed to psychosis, then you'll survive those big doses. I've talked to people who have taken massive doses of LSD, and they'll say, "I was high for a week, but then I came back. I thought I was going crazy, but then I came back." People who are not predisposed to mental illness basically survive those types of things. The people who are casualties are people who had a predisposition in the beginning. Probably any dose would have pushed them over the edge. That's sort of the current thinking.
}}

==Bad Trip==
When a trip goes bad, it can go really bad. Feelings range from intense anxiety, paranoia, panic, terror, and/or feelings of insanity. Bad trips are more likely due to, or may be exacerbated by inexperience, improper preparation (hot tip: always bring water), poor environment, bad initial state of mind, or deeper issues such as depression or schizophrenia.

==Historical usage==
It has been proposed that a {{wpl|Kykeon|drink}} that was used in the {{wpl|Eleusinian mysteries}}, in ancient Greece, made from {{wpl|ergot}}, contained LSD-like psychedelic alkaloids, and even similar compounds could have also been present in rituals of early Christianity.<ref>[https://www.vox.com/vox-conversations-podcast/2021/3/4/21759683/christianity-psychedelics-brian-muraresku-the-immortality-key The psychedelic roots of Christianity]</ref>

==See also==
{{collist|2|
*[[George Carlin]]
*[[Richard P. Feynman]]
*[[Bill Hicks]]
*[[Hippie]]
*[[Kool-Aid drinker]]
*[[John Lennon]]
*[[MKULTRA]]
*[[New Left]]
*[[Other ways of knowing]]
*[[Hunter S. Thompson]]
* [[LessWrong]] - experimentation with LSD is a common practice in this community and its offshoots,<ref>Scott Alexander, [https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/nootropics-survey-2020-results Nootropics Survey 2020 Results], ''Astral Codex Ten'', April 28, 2021</ref> although founder [[Eliezer Yudkowsky]] has concerns about this
}}

==External links==
*[http://phocks.org/stumble/lsd-history-comic/ Chemical Salvation?] — A history of LSD, ''à la'' [[Jack Chick]]
*[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/lsd-brain-study_us_57c849c2e4b078581f117373?section=& LSD Makes Your Brain More Like a Thesaurus]:  Scientists found the drug actually elevates an innate language ability. — ''[[Huffington Post]]'' (1 September 2016)

==Notes==
{{reflist|group=note}}

==References==
{{reflist|2|80%}}

[[Category:Chemicals]]
[[Category:Drugs]]
[[Category:Alternative medicine]]

Categories: Chemicals, Drugs, Alternative medicine