LSD shows early promise as a potential anxiety treatment

(NEW YORK) — Once a symbol of 1960s counterculture, the drug lysergic acid diethylamide, commonly known as LSD, is emerging from research labs as a possible treatment for anxiety.

Preliminary trial results published in the medical journal JAMA suggest that a single dose of MM120, an oral pharmaceutical formulation of LSD, can significantly reduce symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), offering a potential alternative to daily medications.

However, experts caution that these are early results, and many treatments that show promise in preliminary trials don’t always succeed in later studies.

Dr. Maurizio Fava, chair of the department of psychiatry at Mass General Brigham and Slater Family professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, was a senior author on the study. He cont