LSD Administered as a Single Dose Reduces Alcohol Consumption in C57BL/6J Mice
Open accessAbstract
There is a substantive clinical literature on classical hallucinogens, most commonly lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) for the treatment of alcohol use disorder. However there has been no published research on the effect of LSD on alcohol consumption in animals. This study evaluated the effect of LSD in mice using a two-bottle choice alcohol drinking paradigm. Adult male C57BL/6J mice were exposed to ethanol to develop preference and divided into three groups of equal ethanol consumption, and then treated with single intraperitoneal injection of saline or 25 or 50 µg/kg LSD and offered water and 20% ethanol. The respective LSD-treated groups were compared to the control group utilizing a multilevel model for repeated measures. In mice treated with 50 µg/kg LSD ethanol consumption was reduced relative to controls (p= 0.0035), as was ethanol preference (p= 0.0024), with a group mean reduction of ethanol consumption of 17.9% sustained over an interval of 46 days following LSD administration. No significant effects on ethanol consumption or preference were observed in mice treated with 25 µg/kg LSD. Neither total fluid intake nor locomotor activity in the LSD-treated groups differed significantly from controls. These results suggest that classical hallucinogens in the animal model merit further study as a potential approach to the identification of targets for drug discovery and investigation of the neurobiology of addiction.
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In a 2018 mouse study, 50 μg/kg LSD significantly reduced alcohol intake and preference compared to control.
“They administered two different LSD doses (25 and 50 μg/kg) and observed that the group treated with 50 μg/kg of LSD significantly reduced both alcohol intake and preference compared to the control group.”
From A Narrative Review of Current and Emerging Trends in the Treatment of Alcohol Use Disorder (2024) · cites this paper as [76]
In that mouse study, the reduction in alcohol intake and preference was sustained for 46 days after LSD administration.
“This reduction was sustained for 46 days after LSD administration”
From A Narrative Review of Current and Emerging Trends in the Treatment of Alcohol Use Disorder (2024) · cites this paper as [76]
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- Authors
- Alper, K., Dong, B., Shah, R., Sershen, H., & Vinod, K. Y.
- Affiliations
- New York University (US)
- Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research (US)
- Corresponding author
- Alper, Kenneth
- Vinod, K. Yaragudri
- Venue
- Frontiers in Pharmacology
- Publisher
- Frontiers Media SA
- Published
- 2018-08-31
- Volume
- 9
- Pages
- 994-994
- ISSN
- 1663-9812 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC6127266
- OpenAlex
- W2888119399
- Cited by
- 38
- References
- 28
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 2
- FWCI
- 2.94
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- Frontiers in Pharmacology (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- National Institute on Drug Abuse
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychedelics and Drug Studies
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Epidemiology › Substance Abuse Treatment and Outcomes
- Keywords
- lysergic acid diethylamide, LSD, alcohol consumption, ethanol preference, alcoholism, ethanol self-administration, neurobiology of addiction, C57BL/6J mice
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