Ronald A. Sandison
Encyclopedia
Ronald Arthur Sandison was a British
psychiatrist
and psychotherapist who was a well-known early pioneer in Britain of the clinical use of LSD
in psychiatry. Although he later abandoned use of the drug in treatments, he remained convinced of its benefits to the end of his life.
, the son of Arthur Sandison, a civil servant responsible for ancient monuments in London.
Sandison attended King's College School
, Wimbledon
and won a scholarship to study Medicine at King's College Hospital
in London. He qualified in 1940 with excellent results and the following year joined the RAF. Based at the physiological laboratory of the RAF Institute of Aviation Medicine
at Farnborough
, he studied the medical problems of flight, including the effects of oxygen deficiency
and visual aspects of night flying. He was demobbed in 1946, in the rank of Wing Commander
, having been mentioned in despatches.
, Surrey
, as a trainee and qualified with a diploma in Psychological Medicine
in 1948. He was offered his first post as a consultant in 1951, aged only 35, at Powick Hospital
near Worcester
. The hospital, which he described as “medieval”, was overcrowded and run-down. The 1000 patients were subjected to electric shock treatment, insulin shock therapy
and lobotomies.
Sandison wrote about his early years at Powick:
Sandison introduced psychotherapy
as well as treatments involving art and music. The hospital became a centre of clinical excellence with an international reputation. Sandison also established a branch of Samaritans
in the nearby city of Worcester.
In 1952 Sandison visited Switzerland
, where he was introduced to the clinical use of lysergic acid diethylamide, which had been synthesized by the Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann
in 1938. Sandison met Hofmann and brought back a supply of the drug to use at Powick as a tool in psychotherapy. Over the next 12 years Sandison treated thousands of patients with LSD, principally those whose treatment for neurosis
or depression had hitherto failed.
In 1954, with two of his colleagues, Sandison published a paper describing the medical breakthroughs he had made with a majority of his patients. The project aroused world-wide interest and in 1955 a purpose-built LSD unit was established at Powick. Within a few years, however, the widespread abuse of LSD as a recreational drug led to its ban and a corresponding loss of scientific credibility. In 2002 the NHS
agreed to pay £195,000, in an out of court settlement, to 43 former psychiatric patients who were treated with LSD between 1950 and 1970.
Sandison did not use LSD again once he had moved from Powick, but remained convinced of the benefits of its use in a clinical setting.
in Hampshire, developing group therapy for the treatment of schizophrenic patients and helping to build the new medical school at the Southampton University.
Despite leaving Shetland at an early age, Sandison always considered himself a Shetlander, with his father's ancestry reaching back to the 15th century. In 1968 he bought a run-down cottage in the isles that he modernized and in 1975 he accepted the post of resident psychiatrist in Lerwick
. His contribution to advancing health care in his professional years on Shetland was considerable and he became a popular and respected member of the community.
Sandison spent the last years of his professional career in London
and established a successful private practice at St Luke's Hospital. A man of confirmed Christian
faith, Sandison was also a keen sailor and walker.
Sandison was a member of the scientific advisory board of the Beckley Foundation
, established in 1998 to investigate consciousness and its altered states and to research into public policy on drugs. He also became consultant to the London Pastoral Support Group, established by the Bishop of London
for his clergy. Throughout his career Sandison had promoted links between the Churches and psychiatric centres and had been involved with two Cistercian monasteries - one at Portglenone
near Belfast
and one on Caldey Island
, Pembrokeshire
.
in Herefordshire
and who survives him.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
psychiatrist
Psychiatrist
A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders. All psychiatrists are trained in diagnostic evaluation and in psychotherapy...
and psychotherapist who was a well-known early pioneer in Britain of the clinical use of LSD
LSD
Lysergic acid diethylamide, abbreviated LSD or LSD-25, also known as lysergide and colloquially as acid, is a semisynthetic psychedelic drug of the ergoline family, well known for its psychological effects which can include altered thinking processes, closed and open eye visuals, synaesthesia, an...
in psychiatry. Although he later abandoned use of the drug in treatments, he remained convinced of its benefits to the end of his life.
Early life and education
Ronald Sandison was born in Shetland, ScotlandScotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, the son of Arthur Sandison, a civil servant responsible for ancient monuments in London.
Sandison attended King's College School
King's College School
King's College School, commonly referred to as KCS, King's, or KCS Wimbledon, is an independent school for day pupils in Wimbledon in south-west London. The school was founded as the junior department of King's College London and occupied part of its premises in Strand, before relocating to...
, Wimbledon
Wimbledon, London
Wimbledon is a district in the south west area of London, England, located south of Wandsworth, and east of Kingston upon Thames. It is situated within Greater London. It is home to the Wimbledon Tennis Championships and New Wimbledon Theatre, and contains Wimbledon Common, one of the largest areas...
and won a scholarship to study Medicine at King's College Hospital
King's College Hospital
King's College Hospital is an acute care facility in the London Borough of Lambeth, referred to locally and by staff simply as "King's" or abbreviated internally to "KCH"...
in London. He qualified in 1940 with excellent results and the following year joined the RAF. Based at the physiological laboratory of the RAF Institute of Aviation Medicine
RAF Institute of Aviation Medicine
The Royal Air Force Institute of Aviation Medicine was a British Royal Air Force aviation medicine research unit between 1945 and 1994.- Early days :The RAF Institute of Aviation Medicine was opened on 30 April 1945 by the Princess Royal...
at Farnborough
Farnborough, Hampshire
-History:Name changes: Ferneberga ; Farnburghe, Farenberg ; Farnborowe, Fremborough, Fameborough .Tower Hill, Cove: There is substantial evidence...
, he studied the medical problems of flight, including the effects of oxygen deficiency
Hypoxia (medical)
Hypoxia, or hypoxiation, is a pathological condition in which the body as a whole or a region of the body is deprived of adequate oxygen supply. Variations in arterial oxygen concentrations can be part of the normal physiology, for example, during strenuous physical exercise...
and visual aspects of night flying. He was demobbed in 1946, in the rank of Wing Commander
Wing Commander (rank)
Wing commander is a commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many other Commonwealth countries...
, having been mentioned in despatches.
Warlingham and Powick
Having lost his enthusiasm for conventional medicine, Sandison joined the staff of Warlingham Park HospitalWarlingham Park Hospital
Warlingham Park Hospital was a psychiatric hospital in Warlingham, Surrey. It was located at in Chelsham.It opened on 26 June 1903 as the Croydon Mental Hospital ....
, Surrey
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
, as a trainee and qualified with a diploma in Psychological Medicine
Clinical psychology
Clinical psychology is an integration of science, theory and clinical knowledge for the purpose of understanding, preventing, and relieving psychologically-based distress or dysfunction and to promote subjective well-being and personal development...
in 1948. He was offered his first post as a consultant in 1951, aged only 35, at Powick Hospital
Powick Hospital
Powick Hospital was a psychiatric facility located on outside the village of Powick, Worcestershire. Founded in 1847 as the Worcester County Pauper and Lunatic Asylum, it was designed by architects John R. Hamilton & James Medland of Gloucester and opened in August 1852...
near Worcester
Worcester
The City of Worcester, commonly known as Worcester, , is a city and county town of Worcestershire in the West Midlands of England. Worcester is situated some southwest of Birmingham and north of Gloucester, and has an approximate population of 94,000 people. The River Severn runs through the...
. The hospital, which he described as “medieval”, was overcrowded and run-down. The 1000 patients were subjected to electric shock treatment, insulin shock therapy
Insulin shock therapy
Insulin shock therapy or insulin coma therapy was a form of psychiatric treatment in which patients were repeatedly injected with large doses of insulin in order to produce daily comas over several weeks...
and lobotomies.
Sandison wrote about his early years at Powick:
...the amenities were bleak in the extreme compared with WarlinghamWarlingham Park HospitalWarlingham Park Hospital was a psychiatric hospital in Warlingham, Surrey. It was located at in Chelsham.It opened on 26 June 1903 as the Croydon Mental Hospital ....
. The hospital had been built in 1852 for 200 patients... Arthur (Spencer) and I were the only consultants, and two assistant doctors completed the staff. There were nearly 1,000 patients, 400 of whom were living in the four large wards of the 'annexe' built in the 1890s. I discovered that the heating system was defunct, many of the internal telephones did not work, and the hospital was deeply impoverished in every department. This state of affairs had been allowed to develop by the previous medical superintendent, Dr Fenton... who had spent 43 years at Powick. He practiced the utmost economy and Powick became the cheapest hospital in the country... After discussion and consultation with my colleagues at Powick, and with the professor of Psychiatry in Birmingham, I undertook the clinical use of LSD at Powick Hospital towards the end of 1952.:
Sandison introduced psychotherapy
Psychotherapy
Psychotherapy is a general term referring to any form of therapeutic interaction or treatment contracted between a trained professional and a client or patient; family, couple or group...
as well as treatments involving art and music. The hospital became a centre of clinical excellence with an international reputation. Sandison also established a branch of Samaritans
Samaritans (charity)
Samaritans is a registered charity aimed at providing emotional support to anyone in emotional distress or at risk of suicide throughout the United Kingdom and Ireland, often through their telephone helpline. The name comes from the Biblical parable of the Good Samaritan, though the organisation...
in the nearby city of Worcester.
In 1952 Sandison visited Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, where he was introduced to the clinical use of lysergic acid diethylamide, which had been synthesized by the Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann
Albert Hofmann
Albert Hofmann was a Swiss scientist known best for being the first person to synthesize, ingest and learn of the psychedelic effects of lysergic acid diethylamide . He authored more than 100 scientific articles and a number of books, including LSD: My Problem Child...
in 1938. Sandison met Hofmann and brought back a supply of the drug to use at Powick as a tool in psychotherapy. Over the next 12 years Sandison treated thousands of patients with LSD, principally those whose treatment for neurosis
Neurosis
Neurosis is a class of functional mental disorders involving distress but neither delusions nor hallucinations, whereby behavior is not outside socially acceptable norms. It is also known as psychoneurosis or neurotic disorder, and thus those suffering from it are said to be neurotic...
or depression had hitherto failed.
In 1954, with two of his colleagues, Sandison published a paper describing the medical breakthroughs he had made with a majority of his patients. The project aroused world-wide interest and in 1955 a purpose-built LSD unit was established at Powick. Within a few years, however, the widespread abuse of LSD as a recreational drug led to its ban and a corresponding loss of scientific credibility. In 2002 the NHS
National Health Service
The National Health Service is the shared name of three of the four publicly funded healthcare systems in the United Kingdom. They provide a comprehensive range of health services, the vast majority of which are free at the point of use to residents of the United Kingdom...
agreed to pay £195,000, in an out of court settlement, to 43 former psychiatric patients who were treated with LSD between 1950 and 1970.
Sandison did not use LSD again once he had moved from Powick, but remained convinced of the benefits of its use in a clinical setting.
Later work
Between 1964 and 1975 Sandison worked at the Wessex School of Psychiatry at Knowle HospitalHampshire County Lunatic Asylum
The Hampshire County Lunatic Asylum, later Knowle Mental Hospital and Knowle Hospital, was a psychiatric hospital near the town of Fareham in Hampshire, southern England, opened in 1852 and closed in 1996...
in Hampshire, developing group therapy for the treatment of schizophrenic patients and helping to build the new medical school at the Southampton University.
Despite leaving Shetland at an early age, Sandison always considered himself a Shetlander, with his father's ancestry reaching back to the 15th century. In 1968 he bought a run-down cottage in the isles that he modernized and in 1975 he accepted the post of resident psychiatrist in Lerwick
Lerwick
Lerwick is the capital and main port of the Shetland Islands, Scotland, located more than 100 miles off the north coast of mainland Scotland on the east coast of the Shetland Mainland...
. His contribution to advancing health care in his professional years on Shetland was considerable and he became a popular and respected member of the community.
Sandison spent the last years of his professional career in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and established a successful private practice at St Luke's Hospital. A man of confirmed Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
faith, Sandison was also a keen sailor and walker.
Sandison was a member of the scientific advisory board of the Beckley Foundation
Beckley Foundation
The Beckley Foundation is a charitable trust that promotes health orientated cost effective harm reductive drug policy reform. It also investigates consciousness and its modulation from a multidisciplinary perspective working in collaboration with world renowned scientists. The Foundation is based...
, established in 1998 to investigate consciousness and its altered states and to research into public policy on drugs. He also became consultant to the London Pastoral Support Group, established by the Bishop of London
Bishop of London
The Bishop of London is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of London in the Province of Canterbury.The diocese covers 458 km² of 17 boroughs of Greater London north of the River Thames and a small part of the County of Surrey...
for his clergy. Throughout his career Sandison had promoted links between the Churches and psychiatric centres and had been involved with two Cistercian monasteries - one at Portglenone
Portglenone
Portglenone is a village in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It lies 8.5 miles west of Ballymena. It had a population of 2,900 in the 2001 Census...
near Belfast
Belfast
Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...
and one on Caldey Island
Caldey Island
Caldey Island lies south of Tenby in Pembrokeshire, Wales.The island is home to a small village, but is best known for its monastery. Caldey Island is separated from the mainland by the Caldey Sound which is 1 km to 2 km wide between Caldey Island and the coast of Pembrokeshire...
, Pembrokeshire
Pembrokeshire
Pembrokeshire is a county in the south west of Wales. It borders Carmarthenshire to the east and Ceredigion to the north east. The county town is Haverfordwest where Pembrokeshire County Council is headquartered....
.
Family
Sandison was married three times. His first wife, Evelyn Oppen, had been a school friend. They had two sons. In 1965 he married Margaret Godfrey, but this marriage also ended in divorce. In 1982 he married Beth Almond, with whom he moved on his retirement on 1992, to LedburyLedbury
Ledbury is a town in Herefordshire, England, lying east of Hereford, and south of the Malvern Hills.Today, Ledbury is a thriving market town in rural England. The town has a large number of timber framed buildings, in particular along Church Lane and High Street. One of Ledbury's most outstanding...
in Herefordshire
Herefordshire
Herefordshire is a historic and ceremonial county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three counties that comprise the "Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire" NUTS 2 region. It also forms a unitary district known as the...
and who survives him.