Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD) in Palliative Care

Summary

Background: Terminally ill patients often experience significant psychosocial distress having depressed mood, death anxiety, pain, and an overall poor quality of life. Recent evidence from pilot studies suggests that serotonergic hallucinogens including lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and psilocybin produce significant and sustained reductions of depressive symptoms and anxiety, along with increases in quality of life, and life meaning in patients suffering from life-threatening diseases. Additionally, serotonergic hallucinogens may produce antinociceptive effects.

Objective and Design: The study aims to evaluate effects of LSD on psychosocial distress in 60 patients suffering from an advanced or end-stage fatal disease with a life expectancy ≥12wks and ≤2yrs in an active placebo-controlled double-blind parallel study. Patients will be allocated in a 2:1 ratio to one of the two intervention arms receiving either two moderate to high doses of LSD (100 µg and 100 µg or 100 µg and 200 µg) as intervention and two low doses of LSD (25 µg and 25 µg) as active-placebo control.

Conditions

• Palliative Care
• Pain
• Anxiety
• Depression
• Demoralization
• Psychological Distress
• Quality of Life
• Caregiver Burden
• Fear of Death
• Existential Distress

Interventions

DRUG

Lysergic Acid Diethylamide Tartrate

25 μg p.o.

DRUG

Lysergic Acid Diethylamide Tartrate

100 or 200 μg p.o.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University Hospital, Zürich

  collaborator OTHER

• Spital Uster AG, Uster, Switzerland

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• University Hospital, Geneva

  collaborator OTHER

• University Hospital, Basel, Switzerland

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Yasmin Schmid, PD Dr. med. · University Hospital, Basel, Switzerland

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

SUPPORTIVE_CARE

Masking

QUADRUPLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

22 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2024-06-09

Primary Completion

2027-09-30

Completion

2028-05-31

Countries

• Switzerland

Study Locations