Rock Med LSD Drugs Intense Psychedlic Reactions (IPRs)
Rock Med LSD Drugs Intense Psychedlic Reactions (IPRs)
Rock Medicine A Program of
Haight Ashbury Free Clinics, Inc. (HAFCI)
612 Clation Street
San Francisco, California 94117
Intense Psychedelic Reactions (IPRs)
Patient Education Information
Welcome back! You have experienced what we call an Intense Psychedelic
Reaction (IPR). IPRs usually result from taking LSD, Ecstasy,
mushrooms or other psychedelics or hallucinogens.
Your behavior included:
( ) yelling incoherently and not responding to simple questions
( ) experiencing extreme fear or anxiety
( ) walking and/or running around without clothes
( ) violently refusing assistance, running away from security
and/or medical staff, trying to hit other patrons and/or security
and/or medical staff
( ) Other:_______________________
We treated you by:
( ) keeping you in a safe place and talking to you in a calm,
reassuring manner
( ) restraining you with the arms, legs and body weight of our staff
( ) restraining you with padded ties
( ) injecting you with low doses of Ativan, which helps reduce anxiety,
and Haldol, which helps slow down the hallucinations. These
medications are routinely used in hospital emergency rooms and our
staff describes their use with trippers in the Journal of Psychoactive
Drugs (Miller, et al., vol. 24(3):277, 1992). We do not administer
these medications unless the situation is so volatile that there is
danger of physical harm.
( ) Other:________________________
If your trip was particularly long and active, you may find that you
feel tired, sore and have some bruises. Your physical exertion is
the equivalent of a workout lasting for some hours. You may also be
dehydrated. To help counteract these effects, you need to drink plenty
of water, juices or electrolyte-replacement fluids such as Gatorade.
If you are taking prescribed medications, particularly Lithium, Prozac,
Paxil, Zoloft or other psychiatric drugs, we recommend you tell the
physician who prescribed them about this incident. We have noted severe
adverse reactions in some patients. Because of government restrictions
since the 1960s on research involving psychedelics, little is known about
the interaction of substances such as LSD, mushrooms, peyote, and Ecstasy
with prescribed psychiatric medications.
While we can't say we hope you enjoyed your stay with us, we do hope it was more agreeable than the probable alternatives -- involvement with local law enforcement
authorities (police, jail, court costs) or emergency medical system
(ambulance, hospital, psychiatric holds, medical bills).
Our goal is to treat individuals in a non-judgmental manner and return them to their
families and friends at the show as quickly as possible, minimizing their
contact with police and hospitals.
We are demonstrating our techniques for treating trippers (IPRs) to medical and law enforcement personnel in other parts of the West. If you would like to support our efforts, we
encourage you to send us a tax-deductible donation. Rock Medicine is a
program of Haight Ashbury Free Clinics, a California non-profit
corporation founded in 1967. Rock Medicine's all-volunteer staff has over
twenty years' experience treating concert fans whose ingestion of LSD and
other psychedelics took them on trips far longer and more extensive than they had planned.
