The Trials of Psychedelic Therapy: LSD Psychotherapy in America

by Matthew Oram

Overview

The rise—and fall—of research into the therapeutic potential of LSD.

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 percent 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 files from the Food and Drug Administration 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781421426204
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	10/01/2018
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 8.80(h) x 0.80(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Matthew Oram is a historian in Christchurch, New Zealand. He earned his PhD in history from the University of Sydney.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Introduction: Mysticism, Clinical Science, and the FDA
1. Free Experiment: Explorations in LSD Psychotherapy
2. Regulating Research: LSD and the Food and Drug Administration
3. Proof of Efficacy: LSD and the Randomized Controlled Trial
4. Against the Tide: The Spring Grove Experiment
5. Elusive Efficacy: The Trials of Psychedelic Therapy
6. The Quiet Death of Research: Psychedelic Therapy in the 1970s
Epilogue: Resurrection
Notes
Index

What People are Saying About This

Erika Dyck

Taking an in-depth look at the trials and tribulations of psychedelic research in America, Oram offers a sophisticated and careful analysis. The book is very well written, and the research is empirically rich and detailed. There is no other historical account that offers this degree of breadth on the topic, nor one that so meticulously tracks the relationship between the FDA and psychedelic researchers.

Andrew Scull

A fascinating addition to the growing literature on the history of psychiatric therapeutics, examining the now-forgotten story of psychiatry's experiments with LSD. Matthew Oram has provided a throughly researched and genuinely original account of this episode.

David Herzberg

A fascinating narrative history of psychiatric LSD research in the United States—a longer and more interesting story than is generally known. Oram’s insightful analysis of LSD’s last days as a potential medicine furthers our understanding of what may have been lost when the double-blind, placebo-controlled trial became the ultimate measure of psychopharmacological truth.

Scott H. Podolsky

A remarkably valuable case study. This important, well-researched, and well-written book engages with and challenges the existing historiography on the rise and fall of LSD both in the United States and elsewhere. A large popular and academic audience will be interested in this nuanced addition to the drug’s biography.

David E. Nichols

This fascinating book reveals that the demise of LSD research was mostly a result of the efficacy requirements of the Drug Amendments of 1962, which shaped drug research to conform to the ‘magic bullet’ concept of drug function. Detailed here are the riveting struggles of the pioneers trying to find a place for LSD in medicine. A great read!

William A. Richards

Accurate and astute—a comprehensive and challenging resource in the midst of the current renaissance of psychedelic investigations, both for current researchers and government regulators.

From the Publisher

Taking an in-depth look at the trials and tribulations of psychedelic research in America, Oram offers a sophisticated and careful analysis. The book is very well written, and the research is empirically rich and detailed. There is no other historical account that offers this degree of breadth on the topic, nor one that so meticulously tracks the relationship between the FDA and psychedelic researchers.
—Erika Dyck, University of Saskatchewan, author of Psychedelic Psychiatry: LSD from Clinic to Campus

A remarkably valuable case study. This important, well-researched, and well-written book engages with and challenges the existing historiography on the rise and fall of LSD both in the United States and elsewhere. A large popular and academic audience will be interested in this nuanced addition to the drug’s biography.
—Scott H. Podolsky, MD, Harvard Medical School, author of The Antibiotic Era: Reform, Resistance, and the Pursuit of a Rational Therapeutics

The Trials of Psychedelic Therapy is a wonderful read. It's packed with extraordinary detail, gives an old story a new ending, and leaves the reader with questions—something more precious than answers. Without following an agenda, Oram cuts to the heart of darkness of modern psychopharmacology. This book is a trip well worth taking.
—David Healy, Bangor University, author of Pharmageddon

This fascinating book reveals that the demise of LSD research was mostly a result of the efficacy requirements of the Drug Amendments of 1962, which shaped drug research to conform to the ‘magic bullet’ concept of drug function. Detailed here are the riveting struggles of the pioneers trying to find a place for LSD in medicine. A great read!
—David E. Nichols, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

A fascinating addition to the growing literature on the history of psychiatric therapeutics, examining the now-forgotten story of psychiatry's experiments with LSD. Matthew Oram has provided a throughly researched and genuinely original account of this episode.
—Andrew Scull, University of California–San Diego, author of Madhouse: A Tragic Tale of Megalomania and Modern Medicine

Accurate and astute—a comprehensive and challenging resource in the midst of the current renaissance of psychedelic investigations, both for current researchers and government regulators.
—William A. Richards, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, author of Sacred Knowledge: Psychedelics and Religious Experiences

A fascinating narrative history of psychiatric LSD research in the United States—a longer and more interesting story than is generally known. Oram’s insightful analysis of LSD’s last days as a potential medicine furthers our understanding of what may have been lost when the double-blind, placebo-controlled trial became the ultimate measure of psychopharmacological truth.
—David Herzberg, The State University of New York at Buffalo, author of Happy Pills in America: From Miltown to Prozac

David Healy

The Trials of Psychedelic Therapy is a wonderful read. It's packed with extraordinary detail, gives an old story a new ending, and leaves the reader with questions—something more precious than answers. Without following an agenda, Oram cuts to the heart of darkness of modern psychopharmacology. This book is a trip well worth taking.

Editorial Reviews

I found this book useful from a clinical point of view, as well as clarifying from a psychedelic therapy point of view. I certainly recommend this book.
—Pedro Ruiz, MD, Baylor College of Medicine, Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease

A deeply researched, significant and very specific intervention into the historiography of LSD, drug research, research design and drug use in the context of psychiatry. Oram's study benefits a close and extended reading, and he should be congratulated on writing such a fascinating history.
—James Pugh, University of Birmingham, Social History of Medicine

People interested in drug development, ethics boards, approvals committees and the consequence of research-governance directives will enjoy this book. The Trials of Psychedelic Therapy shines a fascinating light on a discipline that is neither pure pharmacotherapy nor pure psychotherapy. Oram shows how LSD's unique position between these seemingly disparate fields has been, and still is, its potential undoing when it comes to obtaining formal licensed approval.
—Ben Sessa, Imperial College, British Journal of Psychiatry

[The Trials of Psychedelic Therapy] introduces many key figures in LSD research and provides convincing new analysis of studies that are fascinating in themselves. Now that psychedelic therapy is again drawing interest, it is worth fully exploring why research faltered the first time around.
—Sarah Brady Siff, Miami University, Medical History

Oram's accessible writing style should appeal to a range of audiences, from historians and psychiatrists to graduate students and popular science readers. His major argument is consistent and coherent, and his analysis raises interesting questions . . . Prohibition might not have killed the field, but many 'first wave' and contemporary psychedelic researchers strongly believe that it impedes their work. Perhaps Oram's book will offer new stories to tell in the emerging 'psychedelic renaissance'.
—Danielle Giffort, St. Louis College of Pharmacy, History of Psychiatry

Carefully researched and insightful . . . [Oram] tackles how serious medical investigators handled LSD.
—W. J. Rorabaugh, University of Washington, Journal of American History

This book is highly recommended reading not just for aficionados of hallucinogenic drugs but for anyone interested in the history of drug development and regulation.
—Nicolas Rasmussen, University of New South Wales, Bulletin of the History of Medicine

From the Publisher

I found this book useful from a clinical point of view, as well as clarifying from a psychedelic therapy point of view. I certainly recommend this book.

Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease - Pedro Ruiz

This book is highly recommended reading not just for aficionados of hallucinogenic drugs but for anyone interested in the history of drug development and regulation.

Bulletin of the History of Medicine - Nicolas Rasmussen

People interested in drug development, ethics boards, approvals committees and the consequence of research-governance directives will enjoy this book. The Trials of Psychedelic Therapy shines a fascinating light on a discipline that is neither pure pharmacotherapy nor pure psychotherapy. Oram shows how LSD's unique position between these seemingly disparate fields has been, and still is, its potential undoing when it comes to obtaining formal licensed approval.

British Journal of Psychiatry - Ben Sessa

A deeply researched, significant and very specific intervention into the historiography of LSD, drug research, research design and drug use in the context of psychiatry. Oram's study benefits a close and extended reading, and he should be congratulated on writing such a fascinating history.

Social History of Medicine - James Pugh

Carefully researched and insightful . . . [Oram] tackles how serious medical investigators handled LSD.

Journal of American History - W. J. Rorabaugh

[The Trials of Psychedelic Therapy] introduces many key figures in LSD research and provides convincing new analysis of studies that are fascinating in themselves. Now that psychedelic therapy is again drawing interest, it is worth fully exploring why research faltered the first time around.

Medical History - Sarah Brady Siff

Oram's accessible writing style should appeal to a range of audiences, from historians and psychiatrists to graduate students and popular science readers. His major argument is consistent and coherent, and his analysis raises interesting questions . . . Prohibition might not have killed the field, but many 'first wave' and contemporary psychedelic researchers strongly believe that it impedes their work. Perhaps Oram's book will offer new stories to tell in the emerging 'psychedelic renaissance'.

History of Psychiatry - Danielle Giffort