Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-17T16:19:25.521Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

A Chronic Impairment of Colour Vision in Users of LSD

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Henry David Abraham*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, St Elizabeth's Hospital, 736 Cambridge Street, Brighton, Massachusetts 02135, USA

Summary

Forty-six users of the hallucinogen lysergic acid diethylamide were compared with 31 controls on a test of colour discrimination an average of two years after their last exposure to the drug. Controls performed better than users, and LSD users without flashbacks performed better than users with flashbacks. An analysis of variance between the three groups was significant at P <0.001. This study suggests that some users of LSD may have a sustained or irreversible impairment in colour discrimination.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1982 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abraham, H. D. (1981) Visual disturbances in a population of LSD users. Paper presented at the 134th annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association, New Orleans, Louisiana, May 14.Google Scholar
Aghajanian, G., Foote, W. & Sheard, M. (1968) Lysergic acid diethylamide: sensitive neuronal units in the midbrain raphé. Science, 161, 706–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Berridge, M. J. & Prince, W. T. (1973) Mode of action of hallucinogenic molecules. Nature (New Biology), 243, 283–4.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dahlström, A. & Fuxe, K. (1965) Evidence for the existence of monoamine containing neurons in the central nervous system. 1. Demonstration of monoamines in the cell bodies of brain stem neurons. Acta Physiologica Scandinavica, 62, Supplement 232, 155.Google Scholar
DeValois, R. L., Smith, C. J., Kitai, S. T. et al (1958) Response of single cells in monkey lateral geniculate nuclei to monochromatic light. Science, 127, 238–9.Google Scholar
Freedman, D. X. (1961) Effects of LSD-25 on brain serotonin. Journal of Pharmacological and Experimental Therapeutics, 134, 160–6.Google ScholarPubMed
Fuxe, K. (1965) Evidence for the existence of monoamine neurons in the central nervous system, Part 4. Acta Physiologica Scandinavica, 64, 3785.Google Scholar
Gaddum, J. H. (1953) Antagonism between lysergic acid diethylamide and 5-hydroxytryptamine. Journal of Physiology, 121, 15.Google ScholarPubMed
Griffin, A. (1971) Sunrise … South Shore, Massachusetts. Lithograph. Copyright 33785, New England Telephone and Telegraph Company.Google Scholar
Helmholtz, H. von (1896) Handbuch der Physiologischen Optik, pp 542–3. Hamburg und Leipzig: Leopold Voss.Google Scholar
Horowitz, M. J. (1969) Flashbacks: recurrent intrusive images after the use of LSD. American Journal of Psychiatry, 126, 565–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Interim Report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Non-Medical Use of Drugs (1970) Ottawa: Queen's Printer of Canada.Google Scholar
Marshman, J. A. & Gibbons, R. J. (1970) A note on the composition of illicit drugs. Ontario Medical Review, September, 429–41.Google Scholar
McGlothlin, W. & Arnold, D. O. (1971) LSD revisited —a ten year follow-up of medical LSD use. Archives of General Psychiatry, 24, 3549.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosecrans, J. A., Lovell, R. A. & Freedman, D. X. (1967) Effects of lysergic acid diethylamide on the metabolism of brain 5-hydroxytryptamine. Biochemical Pharmacology, 16, 2011–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vuillon-Cacciuttolo, G., Meldrum, B. S. & Balzamo, E. (1973) Electroretinogram and afferent visual transmission in the epileptic baboon Papio papio . Epilepsia, 14, 213–21.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Woolley, D. W. & Shaw, E. (1954) A biochemical and pharmacological suggestion about certain mental disorders. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 40, 228–31.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.