The Post-Lsd Syndrome

I want to bring attention to a generally unrecognized condition, which results in a serious dysfunction in people who have experienced LSD. These patients are typically misdiagnosed as having an emotional problem but actually have a disturbance of brain function caused by prolonged effects of LSD. Their symptoms include axniety, insomnia, intellectual impairment and emotional instability. Unfortunately, none of the 500-plus patients I have seen had received effective treatment. The prognosis with effective treatment is excellent, and patients are relieved and grateful when they achieve a remission. When patients experience the post-LSD syndrome for years, with minimal benefit from ineffective medication, they become mentally and physically exhausted... The natural progression is to then turn to addictive substances for relief. The substance of choice in the majority of my patients has been alcohol. This patient?s gratifying improvement contrasts with his original grim, suicidal condition which had developed over years of misery and dysfunction caused by the POST-LSD SYNDROME and alcoholism. One wonders how prevalent are suicides in patients whose Syndrome is unrecognized and untreated.

Dr. Roth was born and raised in East Cleveland, Ohio. He graduated from Adelbert College and the Medical School of Western Reserve U. He then trained in Pediatrics at Jacobi Hospital in the Bronx, New York, and was drafted from his Residency to serve in the USAF during the Cuban Missile Crisis. He served in Spain and Morocco in the Strategic Air Command (SAC) as a Pediatrician. Upon his discharge, he returned to Cleveland as a Resident in Psychiatry and then a Fellow in Child Psychiatry at University Hospitals of Cleveland. After a year as Child Psychiatric Consultant to B&C Hospital, he became Director of the Child Psychiatry OPD for six years. He became a diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology and then of the American Board of Child Psychiatry. He went into full time private practice in 1975, and was a Consultant for many years to Cuyahoga County at Juvenile Court, Metzenbaum Childrens Center, and Hudson Boys School. He was also a Treatment Team Leader at Bellefaire Residential Treatment Center. His main focus has been direct clinical practice. He graduated from the Cleveland Psychoanalytic Institute in both Adult and Child Psychoanalysis, and has engaged in the full time practice of Adult, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Adult and Child Psychoanalysis for over 30 years. After relocating to Palm Desert in southern California in 1997, Dr. Roth began to become aware of the patients who became the subject of this book. Working in his private practice and as a part-time Psychiatrist for Riverside County Mental Health and then for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation at Chuckawalla Valley State Prison, he came in contact with patients who presented a different pathology than he had noted previously. He became increasingly aware of the existence of this condition, The Post-LSD Syndrome, and its surprising lack of recognition. He then researched the literature intensively, only to find a total lack of recognition in the literature. Because of the severity of the disturbance, its attendant suffering, and the relative treatability of the condition, Dr. Roth felt The Post-LSD Syndrome should be brought to public attention. The website for Dr. Roth and this book can be accessed at edwinrothmd.com or at the post-lsdsyndrome.com.