LSD to be used to treat people with depression for first time ever in UK
20 volunteers will be given four doses of acid on separate occasions and fill in surveys about how they feel
LSD will be used to treat people with depression for the first time in the UK.
Researchers will investigate whether taking the hallucinogenic in small amounts can fight the disorder.
Around 20 volunteers will be given four doses of acid on separate occasions and fill in surveys recording whether they feel happier or not.
They will also play Japanese board game Go to see if the drug improves their performance.
MRI scans of their brain will be taken when on LSD trips.
The results will be compared to how volunteers perform after taking placebos.
The £300,000 experiment is being led by the Beckley Foundation – an organisation led by the Countess of Wemyss and March, Amanda Feilding.
She is nicknamed Cannabis Countess because of her stance on legalising the plant.
The countess, 74, said: “There are studies that show LSD is a wonder drug for curing all sorts of things.
“We will not be giving people such large doses that they hallucinate but enough to give them a lift.
“I took it in the 1960s when it was legal and it improved my wellbeing.
“If this small trial is successful, then we will consider applying to the government for more funding to run a larger experiment.”
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The government’s former drug advisor, Professor David Nutt, is supervising the trial.
He was sacked from the post in 2009 for claiming LSD and ecstasy were less dangerous than alcohol.
Critics have slammed him and the Beckley Foundation for their plan to kick off the research next year.
David Raynes, of the National Drug Prevention Alliance, said: “Both Prof Nutt and the countess are extreme pro-drug campaigners and we should be suspicious of their motives.
“Both have admitted to taking drugs and seek to normalise use.
“A lot of people have ad severe side effects from LSD and it is playing with people’s minds.”