We currently find few studies that evaluate changes in psychological variables after an initial consumption of psychedelics . This is due, among other things, to the fact that it is extremely difficult to find people who are going to start using drugs.

Generally, the samples used are already very experienced or, if not, are carefully selected, ensuring the total and absolute absence of any psychopathological trait or , thus diminishing the external validity of the results. That is, the possibility of extrapolating the findings to the whole population.

With the aim of obtaining information about these first consumptions, psychologist Genís Oña, researcher at the Medical Anthropology Research Center at the Rovira i Virgili University and the recently deceased psychologist Juan Spuch, began a research project in mid-2014. The preliminary results of this project were presented at the international congress Breaking Convention, which was held at the University of Greenwich in London.

In context: the therapeutic potential of psychedelics

Recently, psychedelic drugs such as LSD or psilocybin have been the subject of many articles in the press or in the media, in which possible therapeutic applications are discussed.

After several decades of prohibition in which any attempt at scientific research was ipso facto cancelled, laboratories, hospitals and universities all over the world are carrying out new studies on these substances with the aim of developing new drug therapies .

Despite this prolonged “scientific gap”, many users turned, and continue to turn, to these substances for medical reasons. Not a few users noticed beneficial, often unexpected, effects on their anxiety, their mood or on illnesses such as cluster headaches following the use of psychedelic drugs. Due to the needs of these patients and of so many others who are likely to achieve some improvement in their situation, institutions as important as Scientific American or the British Journal of Psychiatry , have launched in recent years express requests to reactivate this “psychedelic research”.

Until now, some therapeutic potentialities of some of these substances were already known , however, new studies have appeared that have raised new questions. One of them is, for example, what happens when someone who has never taken this type of drug makes his first consumption? We could easily find this situation in the future if these treatments were approved, as many potential patients would never have tried these drugs, and we need to know exactly what the effects of this first contact are.

How the research on the effects of LSD was conducted

In their study, Genís Oña and Juan Spuch managed to bring together 9 young university students who met the desired profile: they had no previous experience in the use of psychedelic drugs and planned to use LSD in the near future.

“The aim was to respect the natural course of the situation at all times,” explains Genís. ” We didn’t want to change the context of consumption by thinking of administering the substance in some hospital, as in the other clinical trials. We wanted to see what really happens, in real situations. Something that is halfway between pragmatic trials and ethnographic methodology”.

The variables included in the study were levels of anxiety, depression, a measure of general psychopathology, a personality profile and the level of satisfaction with life. These were analyzed with standardized tests.

These dimensions were evaluated approximately one week before consumption and 30 days after consumption. A follow-up was also carried out after three months to check the stability over time of the possible changes produced. In addition, a control group that did not consume LSD was used, in which the same tests were administered.

The effects of this drug on first use

The first results indicated clear differences in the baseline levels of some variables between the two groups. It seems that the group that planned to use LSD was more depressed, with more presence of psychopathological features such as obsessions , compulsions or psychoticism, and with a lower satisfaction with life than the control group.

This changed after the consumption. The data obtained in the retest showed a significant decrease, not only in these variables in which they differed from the control group, but also in others, such as the level of anxiety, neuroticism, hostility or somatization . Thus, no significant differences could be found between the two groups in any variable and in the experimental group a significant overall improvement was observed after the experience.

The information obtained from the monitoring at three months suggests some stability in these changes, as they could still be seen in a significant way with respect to the baseline levels. Likewise, no significant differences were found between the two groups.

The beneficial potential of LSD

Does this mean that a first use of LSD can be beneficial? Probably. However, we need to be aware of the limitations of the study and be cautious in interpreting its results.

Firstly, the sample was relatively small and, in addition, there was poor control of extraneous variables that cannot be controlled outside a clinical trial. Secondly, the effect of the psychedelic experience can be interpreted as a profoundly positive experience, since for all the subjects who consumed LSD it represented a unique and unrepeatable experience. In fact, more than half of them qualified it as one of the best experiences of their lives . “Perhaps this effect”, explains Genís Oña, “is comparable to other profoundly positive experiences that we have only very occasionally, such as travelling to a distant country or spending a day at an amusement park”.

In any case, these results seem to legitimise scientific research into the therapeutic potential of these substances , because if we can observe these beneficial effects without any psychotherapeutic context, the potential of these substances using an appropriate context seems very promising.

Many details of the study have had to be left out due to its complexity, but the full article published in the Journal of Transpersonal Research can be consulted.