经济学人72:迷幻药之考验 今非昔比

 　　Science and Technology LSD Acid tests

　　科技 麦角酸二乙基酰胺 迷幻药之考验
　　Research into hallucinogenic drugs begins to shake off decades of taboo 1
　　迷幻药物的研究开始摆脱几十年来的禁忌
　　THE psychedelic era of the 1960s is remembered for its music, its art and, of course, its drugs.
　　20世纪60年代是一个让人产生迷幻的年代，这个时代因它的音乐，它的艺术，当然还有它的毒品而被人记得。
　　Its science is somewhat further down the list.
　　而那个时候的科学在某种程度上则不太被人们熟知。
　　But before the rise of the counterculture, researchers had been studying LSD as a treatment for everything from alcoholism to obsessive-compulsive disorder 2 (OCD), with promising 3 results.
　　不过在反传统文化兴趣之前，随着有价值的研究成果的出现，研究者们则正在研究LSD作为一种治疗从酗酒到强迫症（OCD）的方法。
　　Timothy Leary, a psychologist at Harvard University, was one of the best-known workers in the field, but it was also he who was widely blamed for discrediting 4 it, by his unconventional research methods and his lax handling of drugs.
　　哈佛大学的心理学家蒂莫西?利瑞（Timothy Leary）就是该领域最为知名的人士之一，不过他也因为其非传统的研究方法和他对对药物不严格的处理而让这个药物声名狼藉，进而广受诟病。
　　Now, the details of Leary's research will be made public, with the recent purchase of his papers by the New York Public Library.
　　现在，随着纽约公共图书馆购买他的论文，利瑞研究的细节部分将公之于众。
　　These papers will be interesting not only culturally, but also scientifically, as they reflect what happened between the early medical promise of hallucinogens and their subsequent blacklisting by authorities around the world.
　　这些论文不仅在文化方面将会很有引人注意，在科学上也同样如此，它们反应了从早期迷幻剂的医疗承诺到它们随后进入全球各地政府黑名单的之间的所发生的事情。
　　American researchers began experimenting with LSD in 1949, at first using it to simulate mental illness.
　　美国的研究人员研究LSD始于1949年，那时他们第一次用这个化合物来模拟精神病。
　　Once its psychedelic effects were realised, they then tried it in psychotherapy and as a treatment for alcoholism, for which it became known at the time as a miracle cure.
　　迷幻效果一被发现，他们接着就在心理治疗方面尝试用它，它也同样作为一个酗酒的治疗方法，因为在当时这个化合物以作为一个奇迹的治愈而得名。
　　By 1965 over 1,000 papers had been published describing positive results for LSD therapy. It, and its close chemical relative psilocybin, isolated 5 from hallucinogenic mushrooms, were reported as having potential for treating anxiety disorders 6, OCD, depression, bereavement 7 and even sexual dysfunction.
　　到1965年时，已经有一千多篇关于LSD治疗的积极结果的论文发表。LSD以及与它相关的化合物裸盖菇素，后者是从迷幻蘑菇中分离出来的一种物质，这二者都被报道有治疗焦虑症，强迫症，抑郁症，丧亲之痛甚至是性功能障碍的潜质。
　　Unfortunately, most of the studies that came to these conclusions were flawed: many results were anecdotal, and control groups were not established to take account of the placebo 8 effect.
　　不幸的是，这些结论大多数都是有缺陷的：许多的结果都是道听途说的，并没有设立相应的对照组以用来考虑安慰剂的影响。
　　Still, the field was ripe for further study.
　　尽管如此，但这个领域进一步研究的时机已经成熟了。
　　But alongside growing public fear of LSD, Leary's leadership had become a liability.
　　不过与之相关的公众对于LSD的恐惧也在与日俱增，不过利瑞的领军地位已经成了坏事。
　　He was seen less and less as a disinterested 9 researcher, and more and more as a propagandist.
　　他被视为一个越来越缺少公正的研究员，而越多地被人视作是一个宣传员。
　　In 1962, amid wide publicity 10, the Harvard Psilocybin Project was shut down.
　　1962年，就在其大肆宣扬过程中，哈佛的裸盖菇素项目被撤销了。
　　Leary took his research to an estate in upstate New York, where he also hosted a stream of drug parties.
　　利瑞带着他的研究去了纽约北部的一个庄园，在那里他还组织了一系列的毒品聚会。
　　Eventually both LSD and psilocybin were proscribed 11.
　　最终LSD和裸盖菇素都被禁止了。
　　Which was a pity because, like many other drugs the authorities have taken against as a result of their recreational uses, hallucinogens have medical applications as well.
　　这就是一个遗憾，因为与其他官方反对药物的娱乐用途一样，迷幻剂也有同样的医疗应用。
　　But time heals all wounds and now, cautiously, study of the medical use of hallucinogens is returning.
　　不过时间已经抚平了所有的创伤，现在对于迷幻剂的医疗研究应还是谨慎地归来了。
　　Psilocybin has shown promise in treating forms of OCD that are resistant 12 to other therapies, in relieving cluster headaches (a common form of chronic 13 headache) and in alleviating 14 the anxiety experienced by terminally ill cancer patients.
　　在对其他治疗方案都有抵触的强迫症形式，缓解头痛（一种常见的慢性头痛花形式）以及减轻晚期癌症病人所历经的焦虑方面，裸盖菇素显示出了希望的苗头。
　　The first clinical study of LSD in over 35 years, also on terminally ill patients, is expected to finish this summer.
　　LSD的第一个临床研究和在身患绝症的病人方面的研究超过了35年了，预计会在这个夏季结束。
　　Peter Gasser, the Swiss doctor leading the experiment, says that a combination of LSD and psychotherapy reduced anxiety levels of all 12 participants in the study, though the statistical 15 significance of the data has yet to be analysed.
　　领导这个实验的瑞士医生彼得?加塞（Peter Gasser）说LSD和心理治疗的结合缓解了12名参与者的焦虑程度，虽然该实验的统计意义还有待于分析。
　　Research into LSD is not confined to medicine.
　　对于LSD的研究并不局限于药物方面。
　　Franz Vollenweider, of the Heffter Research Institute in Zurich, for example, is scanning people's brains to try to understand how hallucinogenic drugs cause changes in consciousness.
　　例如，海弗特研究学会（Heffter Research Institute）的弗朗茨?沃尔温德（Franz Vollenweider）正在扫描人的大脑，试图搞清楚迷幻药如何引起意识的变化。
　　And biotechnology may lead to a new generation of hallucinogenic drugs.
　　生物技术也可能会导致新一代迷幻药物的出现。
　　Edwin Wintermute and his colleagues at Harvard have engineered yeast 16 cells to carry out two of six steps in the pathway needed to make lysergic acid, the precursor 17 of LSD.
　　埃德温?温特姆特（Edwin Wintermute）和他在哈佛的同事已经通过基因工程改造了酵母细胞，在产生麦角酸——LSD的前体——的六步反应路径中已经实现了其中的两步。
　　They hope to add the other four shortly.
　　他们希望通过在短期内加入其他的四步反应。
　　Once the pathway has been created, it can be tweaked.
　　一旦这个路径打通，酵母就可以得到改良。
　　That might result in LSD-like drugs that are better than the original.
　　这或许就会产生类似于LSD药物并且比原来更好迷幻剂。
　　Even if that does not happen, making lysergic acid in yeast is still a good idea.
　　即便这种情况没有出现，不过在酵母中合成麦角酸依然是一个不错的构想。
　　The chemical is used as the starting point for other drugs, including nicergoline, a treatment for senile dementia.
　　这种化合物可以用于包括麦角溴烟酯（用于治疗老年性痴呆的治疗药物）在内其他药物的起点。
　　The current process for manufacturing it is a rather messy one involving ergot, a parasite 18 of rye.
　　目前制造麦角溴烟酯的工艺仍然相当复杂，它要用到麦角菌——一种寄生在黑麦中细菌。
　　It may, of course, be that LSD has no clinical uses.
　　当然，LSD或许没有临床用途。
　　Even when no stigma 19 attaches to the drugs involved, most clinical trials end in failure.
　　即使这种药物没有任何不光彩的地陷，那么大多数的临床实验还将会以失败告终。
　　But it is worth seeing whether LSD might fulfil its early promise.
　　此外，对于LSD能否履行其早期的承诺还值得一看。
　　And if the publication of Leary's archive speeds that process up by exorcising a ghost that still haunts LSD research, then the New York Public Library will have done the world a service.
　　如果利瑞的档案能够加速驱除困扰着LSD研究的鬼魂，那么纽约公共图书馆将是服务了整个世界。