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Psychiatrists, psychologists, writers, and philosophers have long been interested in the production of temporary psychotic states by drugs (cannabis indica, mescaline, and cocaine). Discovery of psychic effects of D-lysergic acid diethylamide (a semisynthetic derivative of rye ergot) has reawakened interest in effects of drugs on personality. Hallucinogen research has largely been directed toward a possible biochemical cause of schizophrenia. The authors questioned whether hallucinogens induce a schizophreniclike state and administered lysergic acid to a mixed group of fifty psychotic and neurotic patients, and experimented also on themselves. They report on dosage, duration of effect, and physical symptoms, and they give descriptions, detailed findings, and figures on the mental state in lysergic acid psychosis.
Some symptoms of lysergic acid psychosis and acute schizophrenia are similar, others differ. The variations in the clinical state in lysergic acid psychosis resemble those seen in delirious states. Under influence of the drug, behavior is related to the underlying emotional state; psychotic patients become more psychotic, nonpsychotic patients respond with an exaggeration of their personality trends. The use of lysergic acid in conjunction with psychotherapy has been insufficiently studied and it is useless as an aid in differential diagnosis. The authors' personal experience of induced lysergic acid psychosis is described in detail.
Use of drugs such as mescaline and lysergic acid diethylamide for inducing temporary psychotic states offers unique opportunities for research. The discovery that a metabolite of adrenalin induces an experimental psychosis suggests that an error in adrenalin metabolism may be a causative factor in some naturally occurring psychoses. Experimental psychoses are not identical in form with any naturally occurring ones, though there is a resemblance to delirium and, to a less extent, to schizophrenia.