Here is an article written by someone who I hope will become a regular writer of this blog to retire, I named: Pain Jeremiah, his twitter account. That is very well written and serendipity is the discovery of LSD. A big thank you!
In 1938, the Swiss pharmaceutical company Sandoz began a series of research
derived from ergot. It is known that intoxication with ergot causes
vasoconstriction, and the research program hopes to obtain a non-toxic derivative
used in therapy as stimulating circulation. The
pharmacomodulations on derivatives of lysergic acid amides are performed by a chemist
society then the result is then tested on animals. Some effects are observed without
interests such as a state of agitation with the 25 th derivative of the series, the
of lysergic acid diethylamine (LSD). Experiments are stopped and the molecule is
stored in a drawer.
In 1943, the same chemist decides to réintéresser in this work. As he manipulates the LSD
it is taken from a state of turmoil and unrest. Intrigued, he decided three days later to retest the
substance on himself using what he considers to be the smallest dose to produce an effect.
Twenty minutes after he feels a stunning start, with a feeling of anxiety
oppressive. Arriving difficult to speak and write, he asks his laboratine
to take him home. He wrote about this experience "Just when my bike ride
state took on alarming proportions. Everything that came into my field of vision
was bent and swayed like a twisted mirror. I also feel that they do not advance
with the bike, while my assistant told me later that in fact we were driving very fast. My
environment then turned so scary. Familiar objects took grotesque forms
and often threatening. They were marked by constant movement,
animated, as if moved by an inner restlessness. The neighbor was no longer Mrs. R.
but an evil witch and sly facial color, etc., etc.. "Worried about having poisoned
he consults a doctor who finds no symptoms except for mydriasis (dilated pupils
).
Later, towards the end of the intoxication, he begins to understand the changes
perception, kaleidoscopic and colorful him appear, associations of sounds, images and
form are.
The chemist who came to the first bad LSD trip was called Albert Hofmann. He will work
as research director for Sandoz until his retirement in 1971. It will continue to be interested in substance what
say hallucinogens, such as isolating psilocybin and psilocybin mushroom
eponymous Psilocybe sp. . His publications
encourage the development of ethnopharmacology and ethnopharmacology, that is to say the search
plant is part of the same molecules of therapeutic interest in indigenous cultures.
LSD was made available to researchers by Sandoz under the name Delysid. It was first
experience in psychiatry, psychology and even addiction. Numerous studies were then published
about it. But gradually, its use went out of the medical setting and
LSD began to increase, and with it, the story of bad trip can be completed
sometimes quite dark. Its use is then gradually prohibited, it
either therapeutic or research.
Among some famous LSD users include Aldous Huxley (writer and doctor), Karry Mullis
(Nobel Prize for having developed the principle of PCR), Maurice G. Dantec (writer). It was also
a substance of choice for hippies.
Albert Hofmann has always opposed the use of LSD as a recreational drug, but has shown
favor its use in an appropriate setting, that is to say, research. He died at 102 years
last year.
The history of LSD is interesting. On the one hand because it is a fine example of "serendipity"
(that is to say that its discovery was made by chance, but it has been realized by the Hofmann
sagacity) and secondly because it shows how a molecule, which could have a promising future
in therapy, has not been exploited because of its avatars
quickly caught up in society.
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