Xref: utzoo sci.med:23567 sci.bio:4590 alt.drugs:9916 Path: utzoo!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!att!linac!midway!quads.uchicago.edu!den0 From: den0@quads.uchicago.edu (funky chicken) Newsgroups: sci.med,sci.bio,alt.drugs Subject: Re: LSD and Manic depression. Message-ID: <1991Mar12.190627.23104@midway.uchicago.edu> Date: 12 Mar 91 19:06:27 GMT References: Sender: news@midway.uchicago.edu (News Administrator) Organization: University of Chicago Lines: 29 In article bmb@bluemoon.uucp (Bryan Bankhead) writes: >There is no evidence that LSD is capable of causing such a personality >change. Although your emotions can get on a bit of a rollercoaster while >it's active, none of these changes is permanent. This knowledge comes from >controlled tests using standard personality measurements. This is worded too dogmatically. As I understand it, you are right that there is "no evidence that LSD is capable of CAUSING such a personality change;" causality is difficult to prove. However, there have been a fair amount of cases in which people being treated as psychotics have been found to have used LSD before their psychotic symptoms manifested. This disorder is symptomatologically indistinguishable from real schizophrenia. This is in contrast to PCP-induced psychosis which can be distinguished from schizophrenia in a variety of ways. Thus, LSD patients and schizophrenics have statistically equivalent numbers of subsequent rehospitalizations, and perform equivalently on cognitive exams at initial hospitalization and in follow ups a few years later. Because the "LSD psychosis" is not distinguishable from non-drug- induced psychosis, we have reasonable evidence to conclude that LSD was not the sole cause of psychosis. Instead, it would seem that the drug brought on the problems in vulnerable individuals. Interestingly, the rate of parental alcoholism was found to be much higher in LSD patients than in other patients or in the general population by one study (Vardy and Kay, Arch-Gen-Psych, 1983 40(8): 877-83). "LSD psychosis" is poor choice of words, I realize. --Matt Funkchick