Hallucinogens (LSD): what are the effects?
The effects of any drug (including hallucinogens) vary from person to person. How hallucinogens affect a person depends on many factors, including the person's size, weight and health, how much and how the drug is taken, whether the person is used to taking it and whether other drugs are taken.
The effects of hallucinogens also depend on the environment in which the drug is taken and the mood and expectations of the person taking it. For example, whether the person is in a good mood or feeling anxious, is alone, with others or at a party.
More than any other drug, the effects of hallucinogens vary greatly from person to person, and from occasion to occasion. It is hard to know how the hallucinogenic experience, or ‘trip’, will turn out and if someone will experience the adverse effects of hallucinogens (a ‘bad trip’).
Immediate effects
The effects of hallucinogens can last several hours and vary considerably depending on the specific type of hallucinogen. Some of the typical effects of hallucinogens include:
- blurred vision;
- increased breathing rate;
- euphoria;
- sense of relaxation and feeling of well-being;
- hallucinations and distorted sensory processing, including visual, auditory, body, time and space perception;
- disorganised thoughts, confusion and difficulty concentrating, thinking or maintaining attention;
- anxiety, agitation, paranoia and feelings of panic;
- dizziness;
- impaired co-ordination;
- increased heart rate and blood pressure;
- nausea and vomiting;
- increased body temperature and sweating, which may alternate with chills and shivering; and
- numbness.
Last Reviewed: 21 March 2007
