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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 

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