Behavior Changes and Side Effects in LSD Users Essay -- Hallucinogens

Behavior Changes and Side Effects in lysergic acid diethylamide UsersIn 1938, Albert Hofmann created lysergic acid diethylamide (lysergic acid diethylamide-25) at Sandoz pharmaceutical laboratories in Basel, Switzerland. It was initially created to cargon as a circulatory and respiratory stimulant, and it was discovered to stimulate concretion of the uterus. In 1943, it was unintentionally absorbed into Hofmanns skin, and he discovered that it was an extremely unassailable hallucinogen. Although a true hallucinogen is when a person sees or hears something (without sensory cues) that does not exist, and believes that the cognizances are real, LSD is considered a hallucinogen which merely alters the perception of existing sensory stimuli epoch most users are aware that their reprobate perception is sufficed by the drug, (Henderson, 37, 45). LSD temporarily alters an individuals normal mode of perception, reasoning, memory, thoughts, and legal opinions, while producing a flood of intensified sensations. Colors, sounds, and visual imagery become more intense, subjective time is altered, and visual illusions including perceived movement of stationary objects are experienced. The primary emotional response may be of euphoria and contentment, or less often a side effect of confusion, fear, anxiety, and despair may result, (Henderson, 2). Hallucinogens have been used for centuries by various people often in sacred rituals (Henderson, 37). LSDs most punishing psychic effect, the sense of contacting some profound universal truth, cosmic consciousness, or transpersonal state, often described as feeling that the mind is transcending the boundaries of the individual self, with space, time, and identity all disarranged, is often the motivation f... ...e oxidase inhibitors or lithium. Behavioral Brain Research, Vol. 73, Issues 1 and 2, p. 229-233, (1995).Daw, Jennifer. why and how normal people go mad. American Psychological Association, Vol. 33, No. 10 (November 2002).Halpern, J.H., and Pope, H.G., Jr. Do hallucinogens cause residual neuropsychological toxicity? Drug and Alcohol Dependence, Vol. 53 p. 247-256, (1999).Henderson, L.A. and Glass, W.J. LSD Still With Us After All These Years. New York Lexington Books, 1994.Kalat, J.W. Biological Psychology. Canada Wadsworth a division of Thomson Learning Inc., 2004. Ungerleider, J.T., M.D. The Problems and Prospects of LSD. Illinois Charles C. Thomas Publisher, 1968.www.drugabuse.com NIDA Research Report Series Why do people take hallucinogens?www.streetdrugs.org/lsd.htmwww.usdoj.gov/deawww.usdoj.gov/ndic