Bert Newton was given LSD to treat mental breakdown, new book reveals

TV legend Bert Newton allegedly suffered a terrifying bad trip after he was injected with LSD as part of a radical treatment for a mental breakdown, a new unauthorised biography reveals.

The talk show host was admitted to a Melbourne psychiatric ward in 1964 where a trusted doctor administered the unusual treatment, author Graeme Blundell reveals in his new book Bert.

"His recovery was set back when a doctor in whose hands he had entrusted his return to health injected him with ... LSD," Blundell reveals.

"Bert had no idea that a drug of that nature was going to be given to him. 'It was like being thrown into the middle of the Indian Ocean with a lifejacket,' he said later."

Newton said the "bad trip", which allegedly saw him suffer distorted vision, was the most "ghastly" experience of his life.

Noting his distress the doctor administered a second drug to counteract the effects of the LSD.

Newton eventually recovered from the trip and his mental breakdown and returned to TV not long after his stint in rehab.

The much-loved TV personality continues to work but his medium of choice is now theatre.

Source: news.com.au