A Chronic Impairment of Colour Vision in Users of LSD

Abstract

Forty-six users of the hallucinogen lysergic acid diethylamide were compared with 31 controls on a test of colour discrimination an average of two years after their last exposure to the drug. Controls performed better than users, and LSD users without flashbacks performed better than users with flashbacks. An analysis of variance between the three groups was significant at P less than 0.001. This study suggests that some users of LSD may have a sustained or irreversible impairment in colour discrimination.