Oram, Matthew (Author)
Johns Hopkins University Press
Physical Details: 288 pages
Language: English
After LSD arrived in the United States in 1949, the drug’s therapeutic promise quickly captured the interests of psychiatrists. In the decade that followed, modern psychopharmacology was born and research into the drug’s perceptual and psychological effects boomed. By the early 1960s, psychiatrists focused on a particularly promising treatment known as psychedelic therapy: a single, carefully guided, high-dose LSD session coupled with brief but intensive psychotherapy. Researchers reported an astounding 50% success rate in treating chronic alcoholism, as well as substantial improvement in patients suffering from a range of other disorders. Yet despite this success, LSD officially remained an experimental drug only. Research into its effects, psychological and otherwise, dwindled before coming to a close in the 1970s. In The Trials of Psychedelic Therapy, Matthew Oram traces the early promise and eventual demise of LSD psychotherapy in the United States. While the common perception is that LSD’s prohibition terminated legitimate research, Oram draws on FDA files and the personal papers of LSD researchers to reveal that the most significant issue was not the drug’s illegality, but the persistent question of its efficacy. The landmark Kefauver-Harris Drug Amendments of 1962 installed strict standards for efficacy evaluation, which LSD researchers struggled to meet due to the unorthodox nature of their treatment.Exploring the complex interactions between clinical science, regulation, and therapeutics in American medicine, The Trials of Psychedelic Therapy explains how an age of empirical research and limited government oversight gave way to sophisticated controlled clinical trials and complex federal regulations. Analyzing the debates around how to understand and evaluate treatment efficacy, this book will appeal to anyone with an interest in LSD and psychedelics, as well as mental health professionals, regulators, and scholars of the history of psychiatry, psychotherapy, drug regulation, and pharmaceutical research and development.
...MoreReview Claire D. Clark (2020) Review of "The Trials of Psychedelic Therapy: LSD Psychotherapy in America". American Historical Review (pp. 1057-1058).
Review Danielle Giffort (2019) Review of "The Trials of Psychedelic Therapy: LSD Psychotherapy in America". History of Psychiatry (pp. 506-507).
Review Joshua Arduengo (2019) Review of "The Trials of Psychedelic Therapy: LSD Psychotherapy in America". Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences (pp. 358-359).
Review James Pugh (2019) Review of "The Trials of Psychedelic Therapy: LSD Psychotherapy in America". Social History of Medicine (pp. 648-649).
Review Nadine Weidman (2020) Review of "The Trials of Psychedelic Therapy: LSD Psychotherapy in America". Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (pp. 212-213).
Review Nicolas Rasmussen (2019) Review of "The Trials of Psychedelic Therapy: LSD Psychotherapy in America". Bulletin of the History of Medicine (pp. 286-288).
Review M L Draper (2020) Review of "The Trials of Psychedelic Therapy: LSD Psychotherapy in America". Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences (pp. 221-241).
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