A case report on the treatment of LSD psychosis

This article is a case report of how a doctor treated a patient that was under psychosis induced by LSD. The patient that was admitted to the hospital had taken LSD for the first time three or four months before being admitted and a few more times afterwards. The reason for him being admitted to the hospital is because his friends noticed a change in his behavior, which was described as being less in contact with the people around him, and having a high condition of anxiety and confusion. The doctor described how the patient would reply to some of his questions – the patient would not answer the questions and would babble incoherently. He would snap out of his trip for a second, but get right back into it. The patient also went into a little state of catatonia, and over time, he was described to having the same symptoms of schizophrenia. He went through a few “sensory deprivation sessions”, but the other technicians in the hospital decided to perform an ECT on him, since he also began developing aggressive behavior and was scaring everyone around him. This paper was written in the late 1960s, which explains why ECT was used regularly. He had around three or four ECTs, and after the last one, he began to come out of his trip. The doctor described him being unhappy and unsatisfied with his current state, since he was able to “see” things while he was under psychosis. He improved and was discharged, but he was unhappy. The doctor explained how he didn’t know how long the effects would last, but the patient talked about how he wanted to be back on drugs to “continue his journey”.

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