THE IDENTIFICATION AND TREATMENT OF AN EARLY DEPRIVATION SYNDROME IN ALCOHOLICS BY MEANS OF LSD-25
ERNEST BELDEN M.A., and
RICHARD HITCHEN M.D.1
1 Napa State Hospital, Imola, Calif.
A limited research project was undertaken in which LSD was combined with psychotherapy. The results are in essential agreement with those of other investigators, who have used LSD as adjunct to therapy with alcoholic patients. Evidence of the existence of an emotional deprivation syndrome which responds to the technique developed by the present investigators was found and discussed. This syndrome is consistent with some of the psychoanalytic formulations regarding the origin of psychopathic and character disorders. Treatment may be viewed as similar in nature to an intensive existentialist "encounter." The authors propose a larger, systematic investigation with follow-up studies which might confirm their present tentative findings.
