Is it safe to take LSD whilst taking Propranolol as prescribed?
During a bad bout of flu in January I developed a severe migraine that gradually increased in intensity to the point where I could barely eat or get out of bed to drink anything at all. Despite my resistance to taking long-term/daily pharmaceutical medications I reluctantly took the Propranolol prescribed to me by my GP. It helped enormously, and the agonising pain that had lasted more than two weeks finally subsided. I am still taking between 40-60mg of propranolol a day (March 2018) and the frequency and intensity of my migraines has reduced by around 50% for both which is a great relief as they had been increasing in severity and frequency for some time. I had been becoming more and more concerned about this, and I had no success with natural remedies, supplements and therapies.
During the worst pain I did consider a moderate-high dose of pyschedelics as a potential last resort to abort the migraine – LSD is reported to be highly effective when it comes to cluster headaches and I have found ayahuasca very efective at aborting a severe migraine within one hour of drinking the medicine. I have not found microdosing LSD particularly helpful for migraine abortion although it can be helpful for enabling me to get through the day, especially when more complex thinking is required. On some occasions it seems to have made the pain more intense.
Medical advice and drug interactions – Propranolol and LSD, is it safe?
As is often the problem with modern medicine, western medicine and doctors, they have little knowedge of drug interactions (compared to fully qualified pharmacists), let alone interactions with pyschedelics and other ‘recreational drugs’. Most psychedelics are amongst the safest drugs out there, with the lethal dose of many yet to be determined (according to Terence McKenna). I’ve however always considered the potential risks when combing LSD or similar with modern pharmaceuticals we know less about. I try to be honest with my doctor but when you want to be taken seriously with a severe condition, it is sometimes best not to mention your intention or desire to trip during the course of treatment. This time I didn’t mention it and also have not microdosed for over two months since I started on the beta blockers (Propranolol).
Without access to good medical advice either from doctors or an expert regarding drug interactions, I look to forums with others’ experiences and my own experimentation. Someone has to do it, and I take some kind of comfort in the fact I am on a low dose of propranolol. Forums such as Bluelight can be helpful, although I find you need to be very careful who to listen to on there.
Differences in effect – microdosing LSD whilst on propranolol
With a dose of around 25 micrograms I didn’t notice any major differences in effect. I went to work and was actually working on sorting through some large data files and spreadhseets, problem solving some tech issues I was having. I probably had more focus and ability to keep going with this tedious crap, as you might expect whilst microdosing but I can’t say the propranolol made any dicernible difference at all – certainly no more than the ebb and flows normally experienced, shifts you get when microdosing anyway. I’ll add that 25mg of LSD is now an amount I feel quite comfortable taking and going about my normal day. One thing I did notice was that I felt much better sitting down than standing during the 4 hour ‘peak’, although again this is not out of the ordinary at all.
My conclusion is that the propranolol has very little effect or interaction when microdosing and I felt very safe whilst taking it, and was especially relaxed after the 4 hour peak. The post peak effect has become something I really look forward to since microdosing more regularly.
Microdosing Journal 