The "Bad Trip"—The Etiology of the Adverse LSD Reaction
J. THOMAS UNGERLEIDER M.D.1,
DUKE D. FISHER M.D.2,
MARIELLE FULLER 3, , and
ALEX CALDWELL PH.D.1
1 Assistant Professor, Department of psychiatry, CLA Center for the Health Sciences, Los Angeles, Calif. 90024, assistant professor of medical psychology
2 Resident in psychiatry, Department of psychiatry, CLA Center for the Health Sciences, Los Angeles, Calif. 90024, a resident in psychiatry of medical psychology
3 Research associative, Department of psychiatry, CLA Center for the Health Sciences, Los Angeles, Calif. 90024, research associate of medical psychology
In an attempt to identify the factors responsible for adverse reactions to LSD and to elucidate the rising incidence of hospital admissions associated with use of the drug, the authors compared 25 psychiatric inpatients hospitalized following LSD ingestion with 25 members of a group who took LSD together regularly without reported difficulty. Although some differences were found between the groups, there were no outstanding historical or current clinical features which could be used to predict an individual's response to LSD with accuracy. These findings support the hypothesis that LSD interacts with schizoid trends, unsteady reality testing, and related factors in a complex way that makes accurate prediction of response virtually impossible.
