Effects and duration, as described in research
Updated
Research describes a slow start dominated by nausea, followed by several hours of altered perception and mood that can include hallucinations, and often a heavy, sluggish or ill feeling that lasts into the next day. The evidence comes from a handful of small volunteer studies, poison centre records and case reports. There are no large controlled trials.
This page describes what was observed. It is not a guide to using the seeds, and it gives no doses.
Where the evidence comes from
| Source | What it is | Main findings |
|---|---|---|
| Heim et al., 1968 | single volunteers given pure LSA or iso-LSA | nausea, vomiting, fatigue, apathy from about 45 minutes |
| Shawcross, 1983 | six volunteers, ground seeds in capsules | stomach complaints often reported, brighter colours and patterns |
| Kremer et al., 2012 | four healthy volunteers, same dose per kg | study stopped; three of four had severe adverse effects |
| Swedish Poisons Information Centre, 2000 to 2010 | 65 consultations | nausea or vomiting in 29, hallucinations in 14 |
| Texas poison centres, 2000 to 2018 | 29 reports | nausea 34.5%, vomiting 24.1%, hallucinations 24.1%, fast heart rate 24.1% |
| Juszczak and Swiergiel, 2013 | seven user reports from a Polish forum | effects lasting 1.5 to 14 hours, mood ranging from euphoria to paranoia |
All of these are summarised in the Dutch risk assessment (RIVM, 2020); the original papers are linked below where they are openly listed.
Timeline
The timeline below combines the studies above. It describes ranges seen in research, not what any one person will experience.
| Time after swallowing | What studies describe |
|---|---|
| 10 to 120 minutes | nausea, stomach cramps, sometimes vomiting; often the first thing people notice |
| 30 to 120 minutes | first changes in perception and mood |
| from about 1 hour | effects build over the following hours: altered colours and patterns, closed-eye images, changes in sound, shifts in mood |
| 3 to 14 hours | gradual fading, earlier at lower exposure; tiredness or headache can remain |
| next day | some volunteers and patients only fully recovered after a night's sleep or longer |
In the 2012 volunteer study all participants had fully recovered within 9 hours (Kremer et al., 2012). In Polish user reports, central nervous system effects started after 30 to 120 minutes and lasted between 1.5 and 14 hours (Juszczak and Swiergiel, 2013). Swedish emergency patients with confirmed LSA in their urine had symptoms for more than 10 hours (Björnstad et al., 2009, in RIVM 2020).
Mental and perceptual effects
What people describe overlaps with other psychedelics, with a different weight:
- Visual changes: brighter colours, patterns on plain or textured surfaces, distorted shapes, images with eyes closed. In the Polish reports, closed-eye images were mentioned more often than open-eye ones.
- Sound: heightened sensitivity to sound, altered hearing, and in some cases auditory hallucinations.
- Mood: euphoria, delight and a sense of beauty in some reports; fear, panic, persecutory ideas, loneliness or a feeling of being trapped in others. The same report series contained both.
- Thinking: a sense of increased insight in some, confusion and disorientation in time and place in others. One volunteer in 2012 lost the ability to speak normally and had fits of unmotivated laughter in what the authors called a psychosis-like state.
The 1968 volunteer studies found that pure LSA mainly produced an ill, lethargic and apathetic state, while iso-LSA gave sleepiness followed by euphoria (RIVM, 2020). The seeds contain both, in changing proportions.
Physical effects
Physical effects are not a side issue with these seeds; in most data they are the main issue.
- nausea and vomiting, the most common single complaint in every case series
- faster heart rate and higher blood pressure
- dilated pupils
- sweating, cold hands and feet, trembling hands
- fatigue, weakness and a general feeling of being ill
- headache, sometimes lasting into the next day or longer
The risks page explains why nausea and narrowed blood vessels are so typical of ergot alkaloids, and what serious cases looked like.
Why the same amount gives different results
Two factors make the outcome hard to predict. The first is the seed: measured LSA content differs by a factor of four or more within one batch, and some batches contain almost none (alkaloids page). The second is the person. In the 2012 study all four volunteers received the same dose per kilogram of body weight from one homogenised batch. One had no noticeable effects. One became too ill to continue within 30 minutes. One developed a psychosis-like state. All four had a temporary rise in blood pressure (Kremer et al., 2012).
The Swedish poison centre found no relationship between the number of seeds reported and the symptoms. The Dutch risk assessment concluded that it is "not possible to derive a safe level nor to predict which precise effects will occur" (RIVM, 2020).
Afterwards
Several reports describe tiredness, mild headache or stomach complaints the next day. Rare cases had longer problems: an 18-year-old who still had brief auditory flashbacks a month later (Al-Assmar, 1999) and a young man with a headache lasting several days and distress that took three weeks to fade (Borsutzky et al., 2002).