Hallucinogen Persisting Perception Disorder: Causes, Symptoms & Treatment

Schizophrenia is a chronic mental health disorder that affects thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. Symptoms may include hallucinations, delusions, disorganized thinking, and difficulty distinguishing reality from imagination. It is a long-term condition that typically requires ongoing treatment. PTSD and HPPD share some overlapping symptoms, such as heightened anxiety, difficulty concentrating, and vivid flashbacks. However, PTSD flashbacks are typically tied to a specific traumatic event, while HPPD visual disturbances are linked to past drug use.

Symptoms of LSD flashbacks

If a doctor is not sympathetic to a person’s symptoms or does not want to explore HPPD as a diagnosis, then it is a good idea to speak to a different what is alcoholism doctor. It also discusses how a person experiencing HPPD can manage their condition. Little research exists to explain why HPPD occurs and how it’s best treated. For this reason, it’s important you work with a doctor to find a treatment technique or coping mechanisms that help you handle the disturbances and feel in control when they do occur.

What causes flashbacks and HPPD?

• Read on to learn more about this phenomenon, why it happens, and how a person might experience it.
• A representative, but not exhaustive, list of reported visual disturbances.
• The only effect of the flashback you’ll experience is the visual disruption.
• A dosage of 0.75 mg/die of Clonidine has been evaluated as a treatment option for nine HPPD patients 51,59 (Table 4).
• The development of chronic visual disturbances is common to both HPPD and VSS.

The exact cause of HPPD remains uncertain, but it is thought to involve disruptions in the brain’s visual processing system. Some researchers theorize that hallucinogens interfere with neurotransmitter function, leading to persistent visual distortions. Notably, HPPD can develop after a single use of a hallucinogen or after repeated use. To date, no studies have investigated the potential use of rTMS in HPPD.

What Are the Symptoms of HPPD?

HPPD disorder is a mental health condition that arises after the use of hallucinogenic drugs, typically lysergic acid diethylamide. Also known as LSD, this drug is a clear or white material derived from a fungus that grows on grains. It causes people to see images and feel sensations that aren’t real, called hallucinations. Abraham suggested that all three can arise from a broader mechanism of disinhibition in sensory perception, affect and sense-of-self occasioned by psychedelic experience. It is not uncommon for depersonalization-derealization HPPD symptom to be the most distressing symptom of the condition.

Managing Hallucinogen-Persistent Perception Disorder

A general misunderstanding or lack of awareness of HPPD II among doctors may lead to misdiagnosis or ineffective treatment. They believe hallucinogens may inhibit systems in the brain that constantly filter signals that affect our perception. The brains of people with HPPD may be unable to filter unnecessary signals, causing visual distortions, according to a 2018 article in the journal Brain Sciences. The disorder is different from experiencing flashbacks after the effects of hallucinogens wear off.

• HPPD does not cause people to have full hallucinations or delusions.
• Hallucinogen persisting perception disorder can lead to anxiety, depression, and impaired cognitive function but does not typically cause other physical health issues.
• HPPD refers to when someone reexperiences visual and emotional sensations that can surface with psychedelic use after a substance is out of your system.
• The visual disturbances experienced, are understood as pseudo-hallucinations rather than the clinical view of hallucinations, as people with HPPD understand what they are experiencing.

Contact us today to schedule a consultation and take the first step toward relief. And A.G.L. conceived, designed, and coordinated the review; R.S. And M.d.G. wrote the introduction and the discussion; M.C.S. and M.L. HPPDs are poorly understood due to the enormous range and variability of recurrent sensory disturbances, and the multiple distinct subtypes 17,18.