HPPD: Symptoms, causes, and treatment

Worrying about having an HPPD episode could actually make you more likely to experience one. Read on to learn more about HPPD, the symptoms you might experience if you have it, and how you can find relief. Because so few cases of HPPD are officially diagnosed, research is quite limited.

Implications for clinical practice

• Conversely, the onset of HPPD II might be unexpected and abruptly detonate with bursting “auras”, deep feelings of self-detachment, acute depersonalization-derealization 19.
• Little research exists to explain why HPPD occurs and how it’s best treated.
• Flashbacks are a transient and intermittent re-experience of perceptual changes reminiscent of a previous psychedelic state.
• In turn, this causes visual ‘noise’ to appear in people’s visual fields.

Both PTSD flashbacks and pleasurable drug flashbacks are often all-encompassing. In other words, during these flashbacks, all of your sensory information tells you that you’re reliving the event or trip, even if you’re not. During some flashbacks, the sensation of reliving the trip or the effects of the drug is pleasant. It has been suggested that brain stimulation treatments, such as Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS), may be effective in treating HPPD, but there has been little evidence as of yet to establish their efficacy. As researchers come to understand more about the condition, a more extensive range of treatments may become available.

Hallucinogen Persisting Perception Disorder Types

Upon commencing drug Substance abuse therapy with lamotrigine, these complex visual disturbances receded almost completely. Based on its hypothesized neuroprotective and mood-stabilizing effects, the antiepileptic lamotrigine may offer a promising new approach in the treatment of HPPD. According to DSM-5, Hallucinogen Persisting Perception Disorder is the recurrence of perceptive disturbances that firstly develop during intoxication.

Hallucinogen Persisting Perception Disorder Treatment

• The neuroplasticity theory may explain why teenagers are more susceptible to HPPD, as their brains are more plastic than adults.
• If you’re somebody with HPPD and would like to help out in an online survey study to understand the nature of HPPD experiences, please visit this page.
• Chemically synthesized hallucinogens include ketamine, PCP (phencyclidine or angel dust), dizocilpine, LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide), and MDMA (also known as ecstasy or Molly).

The use of second-generation antipsychotics in HPPD patients without comorbid psychotic disorders is debated. Anderson recently reported the case of a young woman presenting prolonged and distressing multimodal pseudo-hallucinations, depressive symptoms, and anxiety, who was treated with Risperidone for three months without any significant improvement 48. At the same time, conflicting evidence exists on the antipsychotics effects in hppd symptoms psychotic HPPD patients.

Case report

Additionally, there are data supporting a neuroprotective effect Halonen et al. 2001. Lamotrigine has also been shown to reduce symptoms of depersonalization and derealization Sierra et al. 2001, although the same group was unable to reproduce their results in a placebo-controlled follow-up study Sierra et al. 2003. Given that excitotoxic destruction of inhibitory interneurons may play a role in at least some of the visual symptoms of HPPD (see below), lamotrigine was considered a possible treatment option for this patient. Furthermore, lamotrigine is generally well tolerated with a relative lack of adverse effects, making it a drug of choice for youths and young adults. HPPD is most commonly seen after the use of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD). HPPD however has also been reported after cannabis, 3,4- methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA/“ecstasy”), and other novel psychoactive substances (NPS)456789.