LSD news

thisisvegas, This cat.., reddit 

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This is just in from the Alchemist Newsletter, a ChemWeb publication--Wondrous, tender music:

New research into the hallucinogenic drug, LSD, lysergic acid diethylamide, could help explain why music gives us the tingles and makes us emotional. There is renewed interest from medical science into the mode of action of LSD as well as its potential therapeutic effects. This coupled with its infamous use by musicians and other artists, especially during the 1950s and 1960s, led to a placebo-controlled study that looked at whether or not LSD enhances the emotional response to instrumental music. In a preliminary study with a small group of volunteers, LSD was found to boost emotions such as "wonder", "transcendence", "power" and "tenderness", according to a team from Imperial College London writing in the journal Psychopharmacology (Berl) in August this year. 

Reports on this study are in The Atlantic, Seeing Opportunity in Psychedelic Drugs, and The Guardian, Psychedelic drugs like LSD could be used to treat depression, study suggests. The team at Imperial College London reports New study discovers biological basis for magic mushroom 'mind expansion'.

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LSD illustration, Imperial College London

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For a more traditional view of LSD, check out the Wikipedia article, Lysergic acid diethylamide. LSD is a controlled substance in the U.S; HowStuffWorks explains what that means. The DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) has published a fact sheet on LSD (PDF format).

Disclaimer: Please don't take this post as an encouragement to experiment with LSD. This writer is simply offering information.

-- Marge