Untoward Reactions to Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD) Resulting in Hospitalization

A sudden increase in psychiatric admissions at Bellevue Hospital following LSD ingestion prompted a review of the history of the drug. Medical research typically progresses from clinical observation to laboratory experiment, but drugs like LSD, first synthesized in the lab, can create new clinical syndromes or etiologies of old syndromes as by-products of abuse or physician error. The text describes this pattern of discovery and the clinical consequences of LSD use.

Study at a glance

Abstract

MOST typically, medical research has proceeded from clinical observation to clinical investigation to laboratory experiment. Some of the striking exceptions to this pattern have been studies of a variety of pharmacologic agents that are capable of producing changes in psychic state. These drugs, first isolated or synthesized in the laboratory, occasionally create a new clinical syndrome or a new etiology of an old syndrome as an undesirable by-product of individual abuse or poor judgment by the physician.A sudden surge of admissions to the Bellevue Psychiatric Division after ingestion of d-lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) prompted us to review the history . . .