Hoffer, Abram

Treatment of Alcoholism with Psychedelic Therapy. Abram Hoffer 357... 

My next LSD experiences were in situations that the mentally ill might face in a typical institution. These occurred at the University Hospital in Saskatoon, under the supervision of Dr. Abram Hoffer, and at the Saskatchewan Hospital in Weyburn, under the supervision of Dr. Humphry Osmond. 

The following quotation is an extract from a letter directed to me, via Dr. Abram Hoffer, from a former patient who was aware of my interest in environmental needs. 

Abram Hoffer, formerly Professor of Psychiatry, University of Saskatchewan, and Director of Psychiatric Research, Department of Public Health, Saskatchewan, is now engaged in private practice in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. 

HUMPHRY OSMOND is the Bureau s Director of Research in Neurology and Psychiatry. The man who first coined the term "psychedelics," he is the co-author (with Abram Hoffer) of How to Live with Schizophrenia, Chemical Basis of Clinical Psychiatry, and New Hope for Alcoholics. 

Osmond was already sensitive to the lack of an adequate term for the mental state induced by mescaline and LSD. He and his colleague Abram Hoffer had been observing LSD s effects in the treatment of acute alcoholism, and the states produced in their subjects were not as expected Having read in the literature that LSD produced temporary psychosis, they had reasoned that such a substance could be used to touch off a kind of artificial and controllable delirium tremens. About 10 percent of those who experience d.t. s never drink again. 

LSD is generally considered cross-tolerant with mescaline but not with psilocybin—meaning that use of LSD a day before taking mescaline will reduce the impact of the mescaline (less tolerance develops if the order of the compounds is reversed). It is well established that LSD is cross-tolerant with itself—self-limiting, in the sense that if a second dose is taken a day later the effects will be considerably diminished. This tolerance endures significantly for three days and does not fully dissipate for a week. Abram Hoffer has remarked that LSD is its own greatest enemy. This feature acts as a control on human abuse of this drug. 

Abram Hoffer had this to say when he published statistics relating to more than 800 hardcore alcoholics who had been treated in the Canadian LSD program ... 

When Abram Hoffer and Humphry Osmond took up the matter of mental effects in their book The Hallucinogens, they remarked that "the major difference between the mushroom effect and pure psilocybin seems to be the dryness of the scientific accounts and the richness of the accounts of self-experimentation. Probably no finer example of "richness" exists than in the descriptions of R. Gordon Wasson. 

At very low doses, 20 meg or less, very little happens. At 50 meg, there is an inerease in alertness. At 75 meg some subjeets reaet with a strong experienee and others remain very tense and uneomfort-able. At 100 meg about 75 percent of normal subjeets become very relaxed and remarkably free of tension. The remainder may require 200 meg to get the same degree of relaxation. There must be a maximum degree of relaxation before the psychedelic experience is achieved most subjects have very tense, unpleasant experiences when given too little LSD, Abram Hoffer, M.D. (1967)... 

Toward the end of the period of hospitalization (mean two months) the patients were given the LSD treatment, they received 200 meg. During the session the therapist worked with the patient to bring out repressed memories, abreactions, new insights, and new understanding, Abram Hoffer, M.D.(1967)... 

In a series of experiments over the past ten years, no subjects have failed to react in the expected manner to 200 meg. however, perhaps 25 percent of alcoholic subjects will react minimally to 200 meg and about 90 percent will react to 300 meg., Abram Hoffer, MD (1967)... 

The Hallucinogens, by Abram Hoffer and Humphrey Osmond, the foremost and original authorities on the psychedelics. Although this Academic Press book retails for 25, perhaps you can pick up a copy at a local library. 

In an article by Reagan Houston in the July 2005 Townsend Letter for Doctors Patients, the work of Abram Hoffer and other physicians is reviewed for different cancers, giving the remarkably higher success rates. Dr. Hoffer s vitamin regimen is included, and daily dosages as high as 100,000 mg (100 g) or even 200,000 mg have been used. Vitamin C as sodium ascorbate can be used as an alternative to ascorbic acid, and IV use is recommended. 

Similarly, in the December 2005 issue of the same periodical, an item on page 18 has the title Intravenous Vitamin C is Selectively Toxic to Cancer Cells. This was confirmed by researchers at the NIH and was reported in an article pnblished in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The Bio-Conunnnications Research Institute (BCRI) in Wichita, Kansas, has published some 20 scientific articles on the subject, notably in the British Journal of Cancer, in 2001. Hngh D. Riordan, M.D., was the principal investigator at BCRI, and the work done by him and his associates using vitamin C parallels and follows that of Linns Panling and Abram Hoffer in orthomolecular medicine. 

As for the action of vitamin C, and the work of Linus Pauling and Ewan Cameron, and of Abram Hoffer, the work of Hugh Riordan is also of special note. Dr. Riordan, of Wichita, Kansas, was recognized as a world leader on the injection of megadoses of vitamin C against cancer. This work is carried out at the Center for the Improvement of Human Functioning International, 3100 North Hillside Avenue, Wichita KS 67219, (316) 682-3100, with Phase I clinical trials at the University of Nebraska Medical School Hospital, and Phase II clinical trials under the auspices of the National Institutes of Health. (The acronym for the center is RECNAC, which is Cancer spelled backwards.)... 

And not to be overlooked is Vitamin C and Cancer Discovery, Recovery, Controversy by Abram Hoffer, M.D., Ph.D., a former associate of Linus Pauling. In an interview and update in the January 2003 issue of Life Extension, Hoffer mentions successes using niacin and vitamin C, a treatment originally used effectively against schizophrenia. 

Hoffer, A. 2006. Adventures in Psychiatry The Scientific Memoirs of Dr. Abram Hoffer. Alton, Ontario Kos Pubhshing. 

In 1955, nicotinic acid (vitamin B3, niacin) moved into the focus of research as a drug to lower cholesterol levels. The Canadian psychiatrist Abram Hoffer (1917-2009) had achieved good results with nicotinic acid in the treatment of schixophrenic patients. [369]... 

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