title: LSD Acutely Impairs Fear Recognition and Enhances Emotional Empathy and Sociality.
abstract: Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) is used recreationally and has been evaluated as an adjunct to psychotherapy to treat anxiety in patients with life-threatening illness. LSD is well-known to induce perceptual alterations, but unknown is whether LSD alters emotional processing in ways that can support psychotherapy. We investigated the acute effects of LSD on emotional processing using the Face Emotion Recognition Task (FERT) and Multifaceted Empathy Test (MET). The effects of LSD on social behavior were tested using the Social Value Orientation (SVO) test. Two similar placebo-controlled, double-blind, random-order, crossover studies were conducted using 100 μg LSD in 24 subjects and 200 μg LSD in 16 subjects. All of the subjects were healthy and mostly hallucinogen-naive 25- to 65-year-old volunteers (20 men, 20 women). LSD produced feelings of happiness, trust, closeness to others, enhanced explicit and implicit emotional empathy on the MET, and impaired the recognition of sad and fearful faces on the FERT. LSD enhanced the participants' desire to be with other people and increased their prosocial behavior on the SVO test. These effects of LSD on emotion processing and sociality may be useful for LSD-assisted psychotherapy.
authors.affiliation: Division of Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology, Department of Biomedicine and Department of Clinical Research, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Patrick C
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Dolder
authors.affiliation: Division of Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology, Department of Biomedicine and Department of Clinical Research, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Yasmin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Schmid
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry (UPK), University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Felix
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Müller
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry (UPK), University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Borgwardt
authors.affiliation: Division of Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology, Department of Biomedicine and Department of Clinical Research, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Matthias E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Liechti
mesh_terms: D000284:Administration, Oral; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D018592:Cross-Over Studies; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D004311:Double-Blind Method; D004645:Empathy / Q000187:drug effects*; D005239:Fear / Q000187:drug effects*; D005260:Female; D006213:Hallucinogens / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000097:blood; D064368:Healthy Volunteers; D006801:Humans; D008238:Lysergic Acid Diethylamide / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000097:blood; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000187:drug effects*; D066107:Social Skills; D064232:Visual Analog Scale
chemical_list: D006213:Hallucinogens; D008238:Lysergic Acid Diethylamide