About half of people with widespread anxiety disturbance do not respond to usual antidepressant treatments, but psychoadélical can bring relief.
According to a new one, presented this Thursday in JAMAa single dose of the LSD psychoadélic substance seems to reduce anxiety without causing lasting side effects.
“This is the first modern test to specifically analyze LSD, or any psychoadelical, in the specific treatment of generalized anxiety”, And Karlinresearcher of Mindmed Biotechnology in New York and co-author of the study, quoted by.
This disturbance is characterized by a excessive concern With multiple aspects of life, such as work or personal relationships.
First -line treatment includes drugs that act in humorlike selective inhibitors of serotonin reuptake (SSRIS) and other antidepressants, as well as psychological support therapies.
But about half of the patients do not respond to these options, explains I investigator. “For many people, SSRIS are not very effective, they provoke side effects intolerablelike the feeling of emotional numbness, because have to be taken dailyand only work while the medication is being administered. ”
Previous studies already suggested that LSD could be an alternative. Frequently used in recreational context for its hallucinatory effects, it is thought to act by increasing serotonin levels in the brain, which, in some cases, triggers deep emotional experiences.
Karlin adds that the substance can still enhance brain capacity for reorganize and create new thinking patterns.
So far, however, no clinical trial had compared LSD administration with placebo in people with widespread anxiety.
To collect this gap, Karlin and his team recruited 198 adults with this diagnosis. Participants gradually reducing the anxiolytic medication they used, although those in psychotherapy had kept the sessions.
In a clinical questionnaire, evaluated the severity of 14 symptomssuch as concern, tension or difficulties of concentration, on a scale of 0 to 4. average score was 30 by 56 possibleabove the 24 -point threshold that defines severe anxiety.
Then the investigators divided the participants into five groupswhich received LSD at different doses (25, 50, 100 or 200 micrograms) or placebo, without knowing which one had been attributed to them. A day later, only the groups that took 100 and 200 micrograms reported symptom improvements, says Karlin.
A month later, the same groups registered average reductions 21 and 19 points in anxiety, respectively, improvements that remained until the end of the study, three months after administration.
Nearly 46% of these participants went into remission.
Those who received placebo or the lower doses recorded a descent between 14 and 17 points, with only 20% to reach remissionwhich suggests that the smaller doses did not provide additional benefits from placebo.
Second Sunjeev kambojfrom University College London, the results in higher doses groups represent significant improvement in relation to placebo. “It’s an improvement clinically relevant In terms of disability and suffering, ”he stresses.
A IMPROVEMENT OBSERVED IN PLACEBO GROUPcommon phenomenon in anxiety tests, will have resulted from a combination of factors, including the follow -up and attention received during the study, adds Kamboj.
Most participants managed to guess If you had taken LSD or placebo, something also frequent in essays with psychoadelic due to hallucinatory effects. In all groups, Some participants felt nausea and headaches within 12 hours of treatment.
As visual changes, such as hallucinations, were much less frequent Among those who received placebo or low doses compared to the high doses groups.
This raises the doubt about If the benefits are due to expectations Participants as a function of the senses or direct action of the substance on the brain, Kamboj observes.
Despite this uncertainty, the study constitutes one of the most solid tests so far that the LSD could be Useful No Treatment gives anxietyand. “It is a very promising result: a rapid reduction in symptoms can have a huge impact on patients,” argues Kamboj.
