‘Hitting highs at rock bottom’: LSD treatment for alcoholism, 1950-1970
This commentary paper (2006) traces the history of LSD as a treatment for alcoholism from 1950-1970.
Abstract
In the 1950s, researchers in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan began treating alcoholics with d-lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and achieved significant rates of recovery. Psychiatrists, including Humphry Osmond who coined the term ‘psychedelic’ while working in Saskatchewan, believed that the successful treatment of alcoholism with biochemical means would scientifically prove that the condition was a disease and not the result of a weak or immoral character. Initial experiments demonstrated unprecedented rates of abstinence among alcoholics treated with LSD. The approach gained support from the provincial government, local chapters of Alcoholics Anonymous and the Bureau of Alcoholism, all of which collaborated in a public campaign that supported LSD treatments. Although Alcoholics Anonymous endorsed psychedelic therapy, the Addictions Research Foundation did not. The leading Canadian authority on addictions disputed the findings in Saskatchewan and challenged these advocates of psychedelic treatments to conduct trials with proper controls. Despite subsequent efforts to demonstrate that the success of psychedelic therapy relied on both medical and non-medical factors, the treatment failed to satisfy current medical methodology, embodied in controlled trials. By the late 1960s, LSD had become a popular recreational drug and gained media attention for its association with counter cultural youth, social disobedience and anti-authoritarian attitudes. All this served further to erode support for its clinical status.
Research Summary of '‘Hitting highs at rock bottom’: LSD treatment for alcoholism, 1950-1970'
Introduction
In the 1950s clinicians in Saskatchewan began experimenting with d-lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) as a treatment for alcoholism, reporting substantial rates of abstinence and emphasising profound subjective experiences—often described in spiritual terms—as a therapeutic mechanism. Earlier twentieth-century debates over whether alcoholism was a moral failing or a medical disease provided the backdrop for this work; proponents argued that an effective biochemical therapy would help to cement alcoholism's status as a disease and expand access to state-supported treatment. At the same time, historians have debated whether medicalisation was driven primarily by clinical innovation, political considerations around funding, or commercial interests, and Dyck frames the Saskatchewan case within this contested historiography. This paper examines LSD treatment for alcoholism between about 1950 and 1970, focusing on the clinical programmes led by Humphry Osmond, Abram Hoffer and colleagues in Saskatchewan, their collaboration with community organisations such as Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and provincial bodies, and the methodological and social controversies that surrounded psychedelic therapy. Dyck sets out to trace how LSD trials influenced contemporary understandings of alcoholism, how supporters and critics debated methods and outcomes, and why psychedelic therapy ultimately failed to secure lasting clinical legitimacy despite early promise.
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Dyck, E. (2006). ‘Hitting highs at rock bottom’: LSD treatment for alcoholism, 1950-1970. Social History of Medicine, 19(2), 313-329. https://doi.org/10.1093/shm/hkl039
References (1)
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