EDMONTON, Alberta, Oct. 9 (UPI) -- A University of Alberta researcher has found records that a single dose of the hallucinogenic drug LSD can be an effective treatment for alcoholism.
Dr. Erika Dyck has been unearthing some facts related to a group of pioneering psychiatrists who worked in Saskatchewan in the 1950s and 1960s.
One study conducted in 1962 and published in the Quarterly Journal for Studies on Alcohol resulted in 65 percent of the alcoholics in the experiment stopped drinking for at least 1.5 years after taking one dose of LSD in a clinical, nurturing environment.
"The LSD somehow gave these people experiences that psychologically took them outside of themselves and allowed them to see their own unhealthy behavior more objectively, and then determine to change it," said Dyck.
"Even interviewing the patients 40 years after their experience, I was surprised at how loyal they were to the doctors who treated them, and how powerful they said the experience was for them -- some even felt the experience saved their lives."
Dyck's findings are published in the journal Social History of Medicine.
