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D-lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD-25 or LSD) is a partially synthetic derivative obtained by condensing D-lysergic acid, extracted from ergot of rye with a secondary amine, diethylamine. In doses of 10-100 micrograms it produces the following changes in the psychic equilibrium:
Hallucinations.
Elation, depression and anxiety.
Regression to autistic states.
Profound ego disturbances including depersonalization and delusion formation.
The following is a summary of over 300 observations on 32 hospitalized patients and 6 normal controls. (Normalcy implies only that the individual be employed full time at a position commensurate with his abilities and have no obvious psychiatric disturbance.) The diagnostic breakdown of the patients was as follows: 6 acute schizophrenics, 8 chronic schizophrenics, 15 schizoid personalities with depression, 3 patients with involutional depression. Most of the observations reported below were made on the normals and on the acute schizophrenics. All the normal controls showed these effects in varying degrees. In the normals these effects seemed to arise de novo and comparable disturbances usually could not be demonstrated in the past experiences of these individuals. In some instances these effects could be induced by doses as low as 10 micrograms. Acute schizophrenics were relatively less reactive and required 100 micrograms to produce a much slighter effect. Their symptoms appear to be an exaggeration of already existing symptoms but not invariably, as some of them reported visual hallucinations which they had not previously observed. Where clinical evidences of depersonalization were already present, such symptoms were greatly intensified by the LSD. By and large, the chronic schizophrenics did not show the phenomena described below; they did, however, show behavior