Behavior Changes and Side Effects in LSD Users

Behavior Changes and Side Effects in LSD Users

In 1938, Albert Hofmann created lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD-

25) at Sandoz pharmaceutical laboratories in Basel, Switzerland.

It was initially created to aid as a circulatory and respiratory

stimulant, and it was discovered to stimulate contraction of the

uterus. In 1943, it was unintentionally absorbed into Hofmann's

skin, and he discovered that it was an extremely potent

hallucinogen. Although a true hallucinogen is when a person sees

or hears something (without sensory cues) that does not exist,

and believes that the perceptions are real, LSD is considered a

hallucinogen which merely alters the perception of existing

sensory stimuli while most users are aware that their distorted

perception is caused by the drug, (Henderson, 37, 45). LSD

temporarily alters an individual's normal mode of perception,

reasoning, memory, thoughts, and feelings, while producing a

flood of intensified sensations. Colors, sounds, and visual

imagery become more intense, subjective time is altered, and

visual illusions including perceived movement of stationary

objects are experienced. "The primary emotional response may be

of euphoria and contentment, or less often a side effect of

confusion, fear, anxiety, and despair" may result, (Henderson,

2). "Hallucinogens have been used for centuries by various

people often in sacred rituals (Henderson, 37). LSD's most

profound psychic effect, the sense of contacting some profound

universal truth, cosmic consciousness, or transpersonal state,

often described as feeling that the mind is transcending the

boundaries of the individual self, with space, time, and

identity all disarranged, is often the motivation f...

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