Woman free of anxiety meds 1 year after Cleveland Clinic LSD trial success [Video]

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Mary Flynn has dealt with anxiety most of her life, having grown up in a chaotic household surrounded by alcoholism. Every medication she tried didn’t work. But she found another option — psychedelics.

Last year, the 65-year-old Cleveland resident heard about Cleveland Clinic Lutheran Hospital’s first psychedelic trial using LSD, a hallucinogen used recreationally in the 1960s, for people with generalized anxiety disorder. She was the first of three people to receive a one-time dose at Lutheran after going through an extensive examination process before being cleared to participate.

Flynn received her dose on April 19, 2023, in a dosing room at Lutheran and hasn’t been on anxiety medication since.

“Twenty minutes in, I knew that I had gotten a dose,” she said. “I was feeling euphoric. I was feeling very relaxed.”

Dr. Brian Barnett, a physician with the Center for Adult Behavioral Health at Cleveland Clinic …