DPT as an adjunct in psychotherapy of alcoholics

Introduction

Earlier clinical work in Canada and the United States suggested that psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy with LSD could produce clinically meaningful improvements in alcoholism when used as an adjunct to psychotherapy rather than as a mere pharmacological intervention. Those controlled studies reported improvements on a range of psychological measures and on follow-up evaluations, but investigators also noted drawbacks of LSD for therapeutic use, notably its long duration and prolonged, fluctuating termination period of altered consciousness. Grof' and colleagues therefore sought an alternative compound with LSD-like therapeutic qualities but a shorter and more abrupt action. They identified alkylated tryptamine derivatives as candidates and, based on prior reports that dipropyltryptamine (DPT) produced phenomenology comparable to LSD with a briefer time-course, initiated an exploratory clinical study to evaluate DPT as an adjunct to psychotherapy for alcoholic patients. The study aimed to gain clinical experience with DPT, assess its safety, and obtain preliminary indications of therapeutic usefulness in this population.