
An LSD Trip “Off-Switch” May Be Coming Soon - jaoo
https://www.freethink.com/articles/lsd-trip
======
entropyneur
So no info on what it actually is. Just some company filing a patent. And the
fact that they call it "a neutralizer technology" suggests that it's probably
just a bunch of BS combined with previously known drugs to make it patentable.

I'm pretty sure there's at least some published research on using at least one
antipsychotic for that and mountains of "folk research" on using
benzodiazepines.

~~~
DyslexicAtheist
I'm curious what would be the market for this? wouldn't that be an extremely
niche scenario within the emergency-response medicine where people
inexperienced with LSD who suffer a bad trip ask to be taken off it? afaik LSD
isn't a drug that one is likely to OD from either.

~~~
tsjackson
Psilocybin (from mushrooms) and MDMA are both fast tracked for FDA approval as
adjuncts to therapy. Psychedelics are poised to become the most common
psychiatric treatment in the world, with ongoing trials showing huge effects
for treating PTSD, addiction, and treatment-resistant depression. Despite a
lot of therapeutic promise, LSD has not received as much research attention,
primarily because of its duration of effect. Having therapists present for up
to 24 hours (compared to 6 for psilocybin) is prohibitively expensive. A true
off switch would facilitate its study and use in treatment.

~~~
CameronNemo
Results from studies that used an antipsychotic across the board would not be
generalizeable to traditional experiences. At that point, why use L in the
first place if older, faster acting substances are available. Mescaline and
psilocybine have been used in spiritual and therapeutic settings for hundreds,
if not thousands, of years. Where is the interest in L coming from, if not
ease of slipping it past customs and other law enforcement?

~~~
godelski
I think if one class of drugs has the effect you want (in this case
"psychedelics") you'd want to study other drugs in that classification as
well.

Since people are studying psilocybine for depression, PTSD, etc, why not
others like Mescaline, LSD, or DMT? Why leave something off the table? Maybe
LSD is great for a specific type of PTSD and psilocybine for depression? You
got to study it to figure out. And who knows, maybe these drugs don't actually
help at all. Either way, you have to study them to figure anything out.

> Mescaline and psilocybine have been used in spiritual and therapeutic
> settings for hundreds, if not thousands, of years.

Yes and no. Those are the active ingredients, but these have not been
distilled. From my extremely naive understanding, other chemicals here could
affect people differently. So to create a safer and more therapeutic drug.
Maybe you even need some of those other chemicals. But you can't find out
without testing.

One thing is for sure, in a clinical setting you want very controlled dosages.
You're not going to get that by ingesting plants/fungi.

------
wreet
We already have one. Give someone having a bad trip a Xanax and they're good.

~~~
dzhiurgis
How about alcohol? I’ve only had one third of a trip and towards the end
whiskey took some of the edge off.

~~~
mathieuh
I've never been able to even contemplate eating while tripping and the idea of
drinking alcohol while tripping turns my stomach, I find it much easier to
just take some alprazolam or diazepam if things start getting out of hand.
That's just me personally though, I've tripped with a guy who went and bought
and ate a whole chicken while tripping...

~~~
crishoj
In my experience, processed food of all sorts appears utterly weird and
unappealing in this state.

On the other hand, fresh fruit is usually marvellous.

~~~
readarticle
Set and setting. Trip with some poor people who haven’t seen a fresh fruit
since grade school and look out instead for the magical “fruit” drinks that
taste of their literal colors.

~~~
c22
On one trip I had a memorable and absolutely glorious time stuffing my entire
mouth with Gushers[0] and taking deliciously fruity flavored bong hits.

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fruit_Gushers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fruit_Gushers)

------
1MachineElf
To be honest, I'm more interested in an _easy to acquire_ "On-Switch" than
anything else.

~~~
proverbialbunny
Meditation. There are certain kinds of meditation that light up the brain in a
near identical way to magic mushrooms, though imho the experience is better.
An advanced practitioner only takes about 20 minutes of meditation to get into
that kind of state. They can stay in that state as long as they want, and they
can strengthen it or weaken it even turning it off whenever they want.

~~~
mkgolden
Can you share with us some of the mentioned meditations?

~~~
proverbialbunny
Many different kinds of meditation can end up with that result. In some
traditions it starts with the cultivation of samatha and incorporates piti.

Zazen works pretty well for me. ymmv.

------
heavyset_go
Any competitive 5-HT2A antagonist will block psychedelic effects from
classical psychedelic drugs, and D2 antagonists will block the potential for
stimulant-esque psychosis that drugs like LSD can trigger through dopamine
agonism.

There are probably hundreds of drugs that fall into these classes, and many of
them have significant clinical data to derive their safety profiles from.

If someone comes into a hospital with a bad reaction to psychedelic drugs,
it's not uncommon for them to be given something like risperidone, both a
5-HT2A and D2 antagonist, and an anxiolytic to calm them down.

------
LockAndLol
>LSD has been classified in the vast majority of countries as a Schedule 1
illegal drug for more than 50 years, ever since the adoption of the United
Nations' Convention on Psychotropic Substances.

>That scheduling means regulators believe the drug has "no currently accepted
medical use" — and according to scientists from Imperial College London's
Centre for Psychedelic Research, it's had a hugely negative impact on LSD
research.

The US fucked up a lot of research forcing other countries to sign that
convention.

------
thanatos519
What was wrong with Niacin? 1500mg of Niacin stops it in less than 20 minutes
for me.

~~~
dylan604
It seems odd (in a funny manner) that you'd need 1500mg of something to
counter the micrograms of the thing you previously took.

~~~
dmerrick
I think this is pretty normal in biology. Like how someone might have to drink
2L of water to feelbetter after a few shots of alcohol

------
chasers
Kind of defeats the purpose. If you can bail you don't have to figure it out.

~~~
pageandrew
Sometimes trips can really get out of your control and can get pretty scary...
might make sense to allow people to bail from that.

------
KhoomeiK
People regularly use Trazodone [1] as a trip killer. I personally haven't and
I don't like using them, but it does its job pretty well from what I've heard.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trazodone](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trazodone)

------
yummypaint
Now im curious how effective a placebo is at ending a bad trip

------
stanfordkid
Wow. So basically they re-invented Xanax? :P

Joking aside, No way there is any chance that you would stick this in a human
(huge potential for harm, no real clinical use case).

LSD is an insanely potent 5HT agonist, it seems highly unlikely any drug that
is not "serious" would cause any significant reduction in LSD effects. Benzo's
like Xanax can make the trip go in a direction that is less negative... but
you are still tripping balls.

------
prvc
Are there typically lingering physiological effects on the brain after taking
LSD? Would this counteract those, or merely the psychological aspects?

------
chillingeffect
On a related note, lavender oil and theanine have recently been
(preliminarily) shown to increase the likelihood of a good trip:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/shrooms/comments/gwh87x/scientific_...](https://www.reddit.com/r/shrooms/comments/gwh87x/scientific_revelations_about_what_causes_good_and/)

which references this article:
[https://www.nature.com/articles/s41386-020-0718-8](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41386-020-0718-8)

------
jokowueu
They aren't being clear on what they are doing exactly but Why not just use
Ketanserin. It's what they have been using on mice for a while now .

------
dkmar
note: i’m not a doctor or anything related.

Wikipedia says “5-HT2A antagonists block the psychedelic activity of LSD”[0],
so wouldn’t 5-ht2a antagonists like mirtazapine work well enough here?

No idea as to how quickly the trip would be tempered, though

[0]:
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lysergic_acid_diethylamide](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lysergic_acid_diethylamide)

~~~
QUFB
Yes, or at least it blocks effects if you take it pre-exposure. Risperidone,
an atypical antispychotic, is also known for this. Some idiotic big pharma
startup will try and milk this, rather than examining cheap existing
medications. Plenty of medications block 5-HT2A, I think the important
requirement here would be rapid absorption and high receptor occupancy.

~~~
c22
Anecdotally, I've used risperidone specifically to abort LSD trips on two
occasions and found it quite successful both times. Now when I introduce
people to LSD I give them a Risperdal to keep in their pocket "just in case",
though to my knowledge none of them have had to use it.

~~~
penagwin
Simply knowing you have a backup strategy if you panic can go a long way to
preventing panic attacks. Psychiatrists sometimes do something similar where
they write a script for a benzo, just one or two for your bag.

Knowing you can control panic if it occurs goes such a ways in preventing
panic at all.

~~~
indenturedsmile
Anecdotally, one of the best treatments for social anxiety I've found is to
always know where the exits are. At a concert, identify the exit signs. In a
conversation, have someone who can take over for you.

Knowing there's a way out of the situation can completely nullify the
scariness of that situation.

------
34679
The old urban legend is that Vitamin D brings you down and Vitamin C, up. Milk
if tripping too hard, orange juice to trip harder.

~~~
Dumblydorr
That's a folksy legend indeed, where is that from? The 1960s?

~~~
34679
I'm not sure how far back it goes, but it was popular in the 90's.

------
renewiltord
Xanax?

~~~
INTPenis
I came here to see this. We didn't have Xanax in Sweden growing up but we did
carry Valium or Xanor. Xanor has the same active ingredient as Xanax. Someone
claimed Valium would help too but I doubt it.

I only ever heard of this being used once to stop a bad trip, and I wasn't
present.

~~~
smabie
All benzos are pretty much the same, why would xanax work but not valium?

------
steveharman
"On April 1, MindMed announced...".

Haven't their marketing droids heard of April Fool's Day? Or is it just a UK
thing...

------
stephenitis
Not loading. Internet hug of death? Anyone describe what they are talking
about?

~~~
throwaway287391
Cached:
[https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:fL9NNm...](https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:fL9NNmjWngkJ:https://www.freethink.com/articles/lsd-
trip)

------
quickthrower2
I'll stick to RCD trip off switches :-)

~~~
tartoran
Whats that?

~~~
quickthrower2
Residual Current Device - a circuit breaker that opens a circuit when too much
current is not returned via neutral, implying leakage to earth. They “trip”
too and with the similarity to LSD, a TLA ending in D! I couldn’t resist the
joke.

------
dotcoma
That's terrible.

We're going to have fewer 'unicorns' ;-)

