LSD may cause some strange hallucinations, but does it have lasting effects on your mental health? Norwegian researchers say no.


Adding to a growing body of research centering on psychedelics and mental health[1] issues, a team of scientists from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology found using hallucinogenic drugs does not raise a person's risk for mental health problems[2] .


"Overall, there is a lack of evidence that psychedelics cause lasting mental health problems," Dr. Teri S. Krebs, who conducted the study along with her department of neuroscience colleague Pål-Ørjan Johansen, told The Huffington Post. She also said she was not surprised by the findings.


The researchers drew data from the U.S. National Survey on Drug Use and Health, analyzing findings from 130,152 randomly selected survey participants. And nearly 22,000 of the respondents said they had tried a psychedelic drug at least once in their lives.


"We found no relation between lifetime use of psychedelics and any undesirable past year mental health outcomes," the researchers wrote in their study[3] , which was published online Monday in the peer-reviewed journal PLOS One.


Krebs and Johansen discovered several cases in which use of a psychedelic drug was linked to a lower rate of mental health problems, measured by history of treatments and psychiatric medication prescriptions.


"There were a number of weak associations between use of any psychedelic or use of specific psychedelics and lower rate of mental health problems," they wrote in the study. "[B]etter initial mental health among people who use psychedelics, or chance 'false positive' findings," may be factors, but the associations may also show the beneficial effects of such use.


LSD, for example, recently has been tested as a treatment for alcoholism[4] . In a 2012 study, also led by Krebs, a single dose of the hallucinogenic drug was linked to a decrease in alcoholic misuse[5] for subjects in treatment programs.


Psilocybin, the main ingredient in magic mushrooms or 'shrooms, may also help people with depression[6] , past research has suggested. Researchers in the United Kingdom are currently trying to test the hallucinogenic treatments in human clinical trials[7] but have hit some legal roadblocks.



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  • Francis Crick (1916-2004)


    It has been reported that Crick, the Nobel Prize-winning English molecular biologist, first envisioned the double helix structure of the DNA molecule while under the influence of LSD. In fact, though <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/11/science/11book.html?_r=1">Crick experimented with LSD</a> beginning in the late 1960s, his landmark work was produced over a decade earlier.

    Credit: Siegel RM, Callaway EM: Francis Crick's Legacy for Neuroscience: Between the α and the Ω. PLoS Biol 2/12/2004: e419. <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.0020419" target="_hplink">http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.0020419</a>
    Photo: Marc Lieberman




  • Bill Gates (1955-)


    Gates <a href="http://beginnersinvest.about.com/od/billgates/l/blbillgatesint5.htm">gave coy answers in a Playboy interview</a> when he was asked about his experiences with LSD. He said, "there were things I did under the age of 25 that I ended up not doing subsequently."

    Pictured, <a href="http://www.thesmokinggun.com/mugshots/celebrity/business/bill-gates">Gates in 1977</a> after a traffic violation. Photo: Albuquerque, New Mexico police department




  • Timothy Leary (1920-1996)


    Leary, the psychology professor and psychedelic guru, advocated the use of hallucinogens throughout his life. President Nixon once pronounced him <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1996/06/01/us/timothy-leary-pied-piper-of-psychedelic-60-s-dies-at-75.html">"the most dangerous man in America."</a> Pictured is his 1972 arrest by agents of the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs.

    Photo: DEA




  • Kary Mullis (1944-)


    A Nobel Prize-winning biochemist, Mullis is best known for his contributions to a chemical technique known as PCR, which allows for rapid duplication of DNA molecules. In a 2006 speech, <a href="http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2006/01/70015/?currentPage=all">LSD inventor Albert Hofmann</a> said Mullis had told him that psychedelic experiences were responsible for some of his PCR innovations.

    Photo: Wikimedia Commons/<a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/78042080@N00" target="_hplink">Erik Charlton</a>




  • Richard Feynman (1918-1988)


    The Nobel Prize-winning physicist was a lifelong bon vivant, but <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=7papZR4oVssC&pg=PA205&lpg=PA205&dq=feynman+lsd&source=bl&ots=esRYaapQ3Y&sig=FUftfW0_VKnY_f_D-4g-xq9UQZg&hl=en&sa=X&ei=zGIRUJDnHqbq6gH16IGgAw&ved=0CFYQ6AEwBTgU#v=onepage&q=feynman lsd&f=false">wrote in the autobiographical "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman"</a> that he was "reluctant to try experiments with LSD in spite of [his] curiosity about hallucinations." On the other hand, biographer <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/55432166/James-Gleick-Genius-The-Life-and-Science-of-Richard-Feynman-1992">James Gleick writes</a> that during Feynman's professorship at Caltech, "He tried marijuana and (he was more embarrassed about this) LSD."

    Photo: Fermilab




  • Carl Sagan (1934-1996)


    Sagan, the astrophysicist and science popularizer, <a href="http://boingboing.net/2009/10/07/carl-sagan-spaced-ou.html">wrote an essay for the 1969 book "Marihuana Revisited."</a> Using a pseudonym, he discussed his experiences with altered states of consciousness.

    Photo: NASA/JPL




  • Paul Erdos (1913-1996)


    A prolific mathematician, Erdos was known for his ebullient personality. Part of that may have been attributable to his heavy caffeine and, in later life, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/h/hoffman-man.html">amphetamine use</a>.

    Photo: Wikimedia Commons/Kmhkmh




  • Steve Jobs (1955-2011)


    The consumer electronics guru <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2012/06/11/steve_jobs_on_lsd_a_positive_life_changing_experience_for_me_.html">admitted to having used LSD, marijuana and hashish in the 1970s</a>. He called LSD a "positive, life-changing experience."

    Photo: Wikimedia Commons/ <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Matt_Yohe" target="_hplink">Matt Yohe</a>




  • Thomas Edison (1847-1931)


    The prolific inventor was reported to sleep only four hours each night. To help him stay awake, he <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/20/books/howard-markel-on-cocaine-in-anatomy-of-addiction.html">drank Vin Mariani</a>, a cocaine-infused wine.

    Photo: Levin C. Handy




  • Stephen Jay Gould (1941-2002)


    Gould, a paleontologist, once wrote that he "valued his rational mind" too much to use drugs during most of his life, but had a change of heart when he underwent chemotherapy in the 1980s. <a href="http://www.stephenjaygould.org/library/gould_marijuana.html">He wrote,</a> "Marihuana worked like a charm. I disliked the 'side effect' of mental blurring (the 'main effect' for recreational users)...[but enjoyed] the sheer bliss of not experiencing nausea."

    Photo: Kathy Chapman




  • Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)


    Freud, trained as a neurologist, had <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/24/books/review/an-anatomy-of-addiction-by-howard-markel-book-review.html?pagewanted=all">a cocaine habit for most of his adult life</a>. He told his fiancee that he wanted to write a "song of praise to this magical substance."

    Photo: Max Halberstadt