Organicity Measures Following Repeated LSD Ingestion

Abstract

TWO animal experiments have indicated that relatively large doses of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) can produce changes in central nervous system (CNS) function which persist for periods of time considerably longer than are usually estimated as necessary for drug detoxication. Adey¹reports cats given a single dose of LSD in amounts of 80µg/kg showed disruption of conditioned responses and accompanying electroencephalographic (EEG) changes which persisted for 20 days. Sharpe et al₂found that two of four squirrel monkeys given daily doses of from 10 to 40µg/kg required four to six months after discontinuing the drug to regain the predrug level of proficiency for difficult visual size discrimination tasks. Otis replicated this experiment using a larger sample and doses of frim 10 to 100µg/kg. He found similar impairment of both easy and difficult discrimination lasting for several weeks (L.S. Otis, written communication, March 7, 1969). Single