A History of Doctors Prescribing Hallucinogens as Medicine

A history of doctors prescribing hallucinogenic drugs as medicine.

Complex Original

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When you think of hallucinogenic drugs, you probably remember your camping trip junior year when you sacrificed your shoes to the forest to appease the nature gods. (Or was that just me?) But aside from early-20s experimentation and Phish concert parking lots, hallucinogens have been used for more serious and, arguably, beneficial means over the years. While drugs like mushrooms and peyote are deemed harmful and illegal by most governments, reputable and not-so-reputable sources alike believe taking them in controlled environments can do everything from manage depression to cure heroin addiction. With those potential benefits in mind, we decided to take a drug-by-drug look at the ways doctors and scientists have used hallucinogens and related drugs to treat illnesses, as well as expand minds. From acid to ecstasy, this is the medical upside to tripping balls.

MDMA

Schedule: I
Nickname(s): Molly, ecstasy, E, X
Effects: Feelings of empathy and well-being, mild visual hallucinations
Treatments: PTSD, couple's therapy, depression

MDMA is an empathogen in the amphetamine class that was originally invented by George Greer in the lab of famed chemist and psychonaut Alexander Shulgin. Before it was made illegal in 1985, Greer administered the drug to approximately 80 people to test its effects. During that same period, psychotherapists were using ecstasy in small doses, believing that the drug would help partners better understand and communicate with one another. Recently, MDMA has once gained renewed attention from doctors and researchers for its possible uses to treat post-traumatic stress disorder. The Los Angeles Times reported that a series of clinical trials is underway that aims to explore the drug's ability to aid psychotherapy with sufferers of PTSD.

Ibogaine

Schedule: I
Nickname(s): None
Effects: Overwhelming hallucinations
Treatments: Addiction, depression

The U.S. currently lists ibogaine as a schedule I drug, meaning that it has a high potential for abuse. Ironically, however, this powerful hallucinogen is used in countries such as Mexico and Canada to treat people with severe addiction. Clinics carefully administer the drug and use a variety of psycho-therapeutic techniques to help people fight heroin and alcohol dependency. Though the treatment is controversial, anecdotal evidence suggests that it's also highly effective. (For a look inside the process, check out this Vice documentary.) As for ibogaine itself, its hallucinogenic properties are coupled with overwhelming nausea, making it an unpleasant experience outside of last-resort addiction treatment.

Ayahuasca (DMT)

Schedule: I
Nickname(s): Yagé
Effects: Intense hallucinations
Treatments: Quest for spiritual meaning, addiction

The quest for Amazonian elixir ayahuasca has brought countless psychonauts to the South American jungle with hopes of better understanding nature and themselves. The active ingredient in ayahuasca, however, is actually dimethyltryptamine—DMT for short. (If you watched Gaspar Noé's nightmarish club film Enter the Void, you already know all about this stuff.) But aside from teaching Australian backpackers about existential unity, studies are exploring whether DMT, like ibogaine, could be used to help battle addiction.

LSD

Schedule: I
Nickname(s): Acid
Effects: Intense visual hallucination, dissociative psychoactive effects
Treatments: Addiction, depression, anxiety, PTSD

LSD may be known as the most powerful hallucinogenic substance in the world, but before it was stigmatized and made illegal, researchers believed it could have a postiive effect on the mind. Dr. Timothy Leary conducted experiments at Harvard University that included administering acid to numerous subjects. (The controversial experiments eventually resulted in Leary being fired from the university.) Around the same time, British psychiatrist Dr. Humphry Osmond and his partner Abram Hoffer used the drug to treat around 2,000 alcoholics—often successfully—between 1954 and 1960.

While the government has since tightened restrictions on LSD research, scientists have once gain begun studying the drug's therapeutic effects. There's now strong evidence that LSD could be used to ease anxiety in terminally ill patients and reduce symptoms of PTSD.

Psilocybin

Schedule: I
Nickname(s): 'Shrooms, magic mushrooms
Effects: Intense visual hallucination, dissociative psychoactive effects
Treatments: Depression, anxiety, OCD

Along with their storied love for acid, Dr. Timonthy Leary and Dr. Richard Alpert, were equally interested in the effects of psilocybin on the human mind. The Harvard Psilocybin Project was a group lead by Leary whose goal was to study hallucinogens in a variety of situations. One of the most infamous of these involved administering drugs to Harvard Divinity School students to see if mushrooms could increase the intensity of profound religious experience. Not surprisingly, 9 out of 10 students said that it did. More recently, researches have started looking into psilocybin's potential use to treat depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, anxiety, and to help terminally ill patients come to terms with death.

Ketamine

Schedule: III
Nickname(s): Special K
Effects: Hallucinations, pain relief
Treatments: General anesthesia, depression

Ketamine started out as an general anesthetic used in veterinary medicine long before becoming known as the club drug it is today. Still, K's legitimate use in medical situations—both human and animal—is still common around the world. Ketamine is often employed as an anesthetic to treat young children, people with obstructed airways, those injured in combat situations, and more. There's also new research that suggests ketamine may be effectively used as a rapid-acting antidepressant. A recent UK study found that the drug has a "remarkable but brief" antidepressant effect on the brain. Molecular psychiatrist Nanxin Li has also discovered that dosing rats with small amounts of the drug lead to increased signalling between neurons in the brain.

DXM (Dextromethorphan)

Schedule: II
Nickname(s): N/A
Effects: Dissociative hallucinations, "out of body" sensations
Treatments: Coughing, congestion

DXM is the rare hallucinogen that's primarily used to treat something entirely unrelated to the brain: coughing. Dextromethorphan can be found in many over the counter cough syrups. And this isn't codeine-laced lean we're talking about; DXM is present in brands like Robitussin, Vicks, and Demetapp. While low levels don't cause hallucinations, taking a large amount of the drug can cause hypnotic out-of-body experiences. A note to potential robo-trippers out there, however: Drinking large amounts of cough syrup can lead to liver failure and death. Don't do it.

Peyote (Mescaline)

Schedule: I
Nickname(s): Big chief
Effects: Intense hallucinations, altered perceptions
Treatments: Alcoholism, drug addiction, anxiety, depression

Peyote is a North American cactus that has been used for thousands of years by Native American healers and shamans. We now know that the active ingredient in Peyote is mescaline, a powerful psychoactive substance with properties similar to LSD and psilocybin. In the early 20th century been suggested that mescaline could be used to treat ailments ranging from addiction to depression.