AUDIO – THEIR NOT A SLIP? –

Feb. 8, 2024 –  In 1933, the founder of AA, Bill Wilson, achieved his abstinence as a result of a psychedelic experience, and when LSD was made available for research in the Fifties, he helped persuade the US government to fund six trials in alcoholism. There are studies in depression to Prince Harry’s use to deal with his psychological problems. These revealed that just one or two LSD doses as part of a traditional abstinence-based programme doubled the outcomes. This effect lasted for many months and was much greater than any subsequent medicine developed for alcoholism.

Currently LSD is still banned under the UN Conventions so is not available for clinical practice, however another compound with psychedelic effects, ketamine, is. This is an old anaesthetic that has over 40 years’ clinical safety data that has recently been re-purposed for use in treatment resistant depression. However, some 20 years ago a Russian psychiatrist, Professor Evgeny Krupitsky, began to use it to treat alcohol and other addictions with some success. This work in alcoholism has recently been developed in the UK by Professor Celia Morgan at the University of Exeter, who found powerful efficacy of just three ketamine treatments given with an abstinence-target psychotherapy.

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