While lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) was studied extensively decades ago, it has not received as much research attention recently. Therefore, one study examined the effects of LSD on a variety of emotional factors (Dolder et al., 2016). This article will briefly present that study.
Methods
The participants in this study consisted of 40 healthy people between 25 and 60 years old. Twenty-four of these participants took part in study 1, while 16 took part in study 2. Both studies proceeded in the same manner.
The procedure of each study was as follows:
- An initial screening visit
- A psychiatric interview
- Two 25-hour experimental sessions:
- Each session took place in a quiet hospital room with only a single participant and one investigator present.
- Participants could talk to the investigator, rest, or listen to music, with no other entertainment available.
- LSD (in a dose of either 100 μg or 200 μg) or placebo was given to the subjects at 0900 hours.
- For the first 12 hours after LSD administration, the investigator remained with the subject, and when the participant went to sleep, the investigator remained in a room next to the study room.
- An end-of-study visit
The following measures were taken five hours, five and a half hours, or six hours after administration of the 100 μg dose, and seven hours, seven and a half hours, or eight hours after administration of the 200 μg dose:
- The Facial Emotion Recognition Task (FERT) was used to assess each participant’s ability to recognize different emotions (happiness, sadness, anger, fear, and neutral) in pictures of faces.
- The Multifaceted Empathy Test (MET) was used to assess cognitive and emotional empathy in response to pictures of people in emotionally charged situations.
- The Social Value Orientation (SVO) test was used to assess social behavior in an economic resource allocation task.
- Blood samples were taken to assess plasma LSD concentrations.
In addition, the following measures were taken throughout the study:
- The Visual Analog Scales (VASs) and the Adjective Mood Rating Scale (AMRS) were used to assess subjective mood, including empathy and sociality.
- Vital signs were monitored through blood pressure, heart rate, body temperature, pupil diameter, and adverse affects.
Results
The following results were obtained:
- LSD was shown to impair the recognition of fearful faces.
- LSD enhanced both explicit and implicit emotional empathy, particularly with the 200 μg dose, and particularly for positive emotional stimuli.
- LSD decreased cognitive empathy at both doses.
- LSD increased maximal VAS scores, such as “feeling close to others”, “open”, “trust”, “I want to be with others”, and “happy”.
- LSD increased AMRS scores of “well-being”, “emotional excitation”, “inactivity”, “introversion”, and “dreaminess”.
- LSD increased blood pressure, heart rate, body temperature, and pupil size in the dark following a light stimulus.
Altogether, LSD had significant effects on empathy and prosocial emotions.
Wrapping up
The results of this study show that LSD has beneficial effects on emotions involving prosocial feelings and empathy. This suggests that LSD could be useful in clinical settings for certain purposes, such as specific therapies. Therefore, research into LSD should continue as it did decades ago.
References
Dolder, P.C., Schmid, Y., Müller, F., Borgwardt, S., Liechti, M.E. (2016). LSD Acutely Impairs Fear Recognition and Enhances Emotional Empathy and Sociality. Neuropsychopharmacology, 41(11), 2638-2646. doi: 10.1038/npp.2016.82.
