The Efficacy of LSD in the Treatment of Alcoholism

Abstract

A review of studies purporting to demonstrate that LSD (d-lysergic acid diethylamide) is a useful adjunct to treatment for alcoholism has been presented. Each of these studies is evaluated in terms of the basic requirements for any valid drug study, that is (a) control groups receiving no treatment or some other treatment, (b) blind administration of treatment and scoring of treatment outcome, and (c) some measures indicative of treatment outcome which are given both before and after treatment. None of the LSD reports available thus far have used any control groups nor have any used blind administration of treatment or scoring of outcome. For all but one there is no indication of before and after measures having been used, and for that one the before and after measures are different. It is concluded that no solid evidence is available which shows LSD to be effective in the treatment of alcoholism and that a controlled double-blind study is the best method for testing such effectiveness.