Peter Gasser

• Doctor of Medicine
• CEO at Schweiz. Aerztegesellschaft f. Psycholytische Therapie

The growing interest in psychedelic-assisted therapy (PAT) for treating psychiatric disorders such as treatment-resistant depression, PTSD, and anxiety has led to an increasing demand for specialized training. In Switzerland, MDMA, psilocybin, and LSD are applied in the framework of limited medical use as exceptional treatment options since 2014. T...

A 64-year-old male patient who suffered from traumatic life experiences and neuropathic pain after oncological chemotherapy was treated with medium to high doses of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and high doses and microdoses of methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA). At the beginning of treatment, the patient did not experience any acute subjectiv...

Psychedelic substances have gained recognition for their therapeutic potential, but they also present challenges, with individuals occasionally experiencing distressing episodes referred to as challenging experiences or, in the recreational setting, “bad trips”. Trial therapists and physicians, but also healthcare professionals in emergency rooms,...

Background Anxiety disorders are a major public health burden with limited treatment options. Aims We investigated the long-term safety and efficacy of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD)-assisted therapy in patients with anxiety with or without life-threatening illness. Method This study was an a priori -planned long-term follow-up of an investigat...

BACKGROUND This study aimed to investigate the efficacy and safety of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD)-assisted therapy in patients who suffered from anxiety with or without association to a life threatening illness. METHODS The study is an investigator-initiated two-center trial that used a double-blind, placebo-controlled, two-period, random-orde...

The Swiss Federal Act on Narcotics allows for the restricted medical use of scheduled psychotropic drugs in cases of resistance to standard treatment, and preliminary evidence of efficacy of the scheduled drug for the particular condition. Since 2014, the authors have obtained 50 licenses on a case-by-case basis and developed a psychedelic-assisted...

Background Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) were used in psychotherapy in the 1960s–1980s, and are currently being re-investigated as treatments for several psychiatric disorders. In Switzerland, limited medical use of these substances is possible in patients not responding to other treatments (compassio...

After no research in humans for >40 years, there is renewed interest in using lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) in clinical psychiatric research and practice. There are no modern studies on the subjective and autonomic effects of LSD, and its endocrine effects are unknown. In animals, LSD disrupts prepulse inhibition (PPI) of the acoustic startle re...

Objective: A recently published study showed the safety and efficacy of LSD-assisted psychotherapy in patients with anxiety associated with life-threatening diseases. Participants of this study were included in a prospective follow-up. Method: 12 months after finishing LSD psychotherapy, 10 participants were tested for anxiety (STAI) and partici...

A double-blind, randomized, active placebo-controlled pilot study was conducted to examine safety and efficacy of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD)-assisted psychotherapy in 12 patients with anxiety associated with life-threatening diseases. Treatment included drug-free psychotherapy sessions supplemented by two LSD-assisted psychotherapy sessions 2...

This is the opening chapter and editors foreword of our 2008 book on Therapy with Psychoactive Substances. At that time we mainly focussed on the work of a Swiss group called the Schweizerische Ärztevereinigung für Psycholytische Therapie (SÄPT). Our qualitative and historical work about them was compemented by original texts from authors in the fi...

Pycholytic Psychotherapy is a verbal, depth psychology psychotherapy involving experiences in an altered state of consciousness induced by psychedelic drugs. During the years 1988-1993, the Swiss Federal Office for Public Health granted special permission to several psychiatrists to treat patients with psycholytic psychotherapy, using Methylenediox...