Cell Damage from LSD

Half a dozen of the most potent drugs used by physicians have been known for years to cause changes in the chromosomes in some of the body's cells, with the parallel risk that they might also cause genetic defects if the patient later became a parent. Up to now, such drugs have been used only in the treatment of advanced cancer, so the danger to children has been minimal. But last week, in the journal Science, a team of researchers at the State Uni- versity of New York in Buffalo reported that LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide), the favorite magic carpet of psychedelic trippers may produce the same sort of chromosomal damage.

Geneticist Maimon J. Cohen and his colleagues were making a highly preliminary report. They had found this phenomenon in the blood of only three people. From two healthy subjects they drew blood, then grew the white cells in the test tube. When LSD, in varying concentrations, was added for durations of four to 48 hours, the number of broken or otherwise damaged chromosomes was increased as much as tenfold over the small number usually found in healthy cells.

Then the investigators took blood from a 51-year-old schizophrenic, who had been given LSD under careful medical supervision 15 times in six years. In his cells, the number of broken chromosomes was more than three times normal.

"The significance of these findings cannot yet be assessed fully," says the Buffalo group. There is no certainty that damage to chromosomes in blood cells is accompanied by similar damage in germ cells--sperm or ova. But the two kinds of damage have been shown to go together after excessive radiation, and the same may be true after repeated use of LSD. Blood specimens from patients who have "flipped" and become psychotic after LSD are now being sent to Buffalo to see whether the phenomenon is widespread.

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