Pharmacology of LSD: A Critical Review

LSD has a controversial and extraordinary reputation, due to the special effects it can induce on human consciousness. Its experimental use lead to some groundbreaking discoveries about the brain and the deeper layers of the human psyche. After its application in neuroscience, and as a tool within psychotherapy, it was increasingly used by laymen for producing euphoria and religious experiences. Today, there is a resurgence of interest in LSD, including its possible uses in psychotherapy and for the treatment of some headache disorders. This book represents the first ever comprehensive review of the psychological and pharmacological effects of LSD. It draws on data from more than 3000 experimental and clinical studies, with many more referenced. The Pharmacology of LSD provides a unique and valuable resource for anyone interested in better understanding this controversial hallucinogenic drug - including brain scientists, psychopharmacologists, addiction researchers, and psychiatrists.

Torsten Passie M.D., Ph.D. studied philosophy, sociology at Gottfried-Wilhelm-Leibniz University in Hannover (M.A.) and Medicine at the Hannover Medical School. His dissertation was about existential psychiatry and his professorship thesis about psychophysical correlates of altered waking states of consciousness. He worked with Prof. Christian Scharfetter at Zurich University Psychiatric Clinic (Switzerland) and with Prof. Hanscarl Leuner (Gottingen University), the leading European authority on hallucinogenic drugs. Since 1998 he is a research psychiatrist and psychotherapist at the Dept. of Psychiatry, Social Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at the Hannover Medical School, where he is specialized in research on addiction, altered states of consciousness, and hallucinogenic drugs.