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Regulatory, Ethical and Political Challenges of Experimentation with LSD on Human Subjects

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Integrity of Scientific Research

Abstract

The inventor of LSD, Albert Hoffmann, himself referred to his most famous discovery as his ‘problem child’. In the first part of this chapter, we outline the past regulatory, ethical and political issues that surrounded this much researched and debated agent until it ended up as a Schedule I substance, falling under the strictest regulations worldwide. We believe that the ethical, legal and political aspects are equally important to understand what had led to decade-long loss of interest in experimentation on human subjects with LSD. Having explored these issues, we turn our attention to the present research landscape and the future challenges and prospects of trials with this substance. We focus mainly on the research and bioethics aspects; besides we make some explanatory remarks on the past and present political and cultural/socio-critical perspectives that shaped and still affect public and professional discourse on the subject matter.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Behavioral Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary

    Kristof Janos Bodnar & Szabina Peter

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  1. Kristof Janos Bodnar
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  2. Szabina Peter
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Correspondence to Kristof Janos Bodnar .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Hospital das Clinicas, University of Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

    Joel Faintuch

  2. Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center & Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Salomão Faintuch

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Bodnar, K.J., Peter, S. (2022). Regulatory, Ethical and Political Challenges of Experimentation with LSD on Human Subjects. In: Faintuch, J., Faintuch, S. (eds) Integrity of Scientific Research. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-99680-2_22

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-99680-2_22

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