[2] As a consultant psychiatrist, his LSD work was mainly carried out during the 1950s and '60s at Powick Hospital, a large psychiatric facility near Malvern, Worcestershire, after which he spent several years in Southampton, where he was instrumental in the establishment of the university medical school.
[5][1] In 1941 he began his service with the Royal Air Force (RAF), stationed in Farnborough, Hampshire at the physiological laboratory, researching the medical effects of flight on aircrew, including high altitude oxygen deficiency and night flying on Spitfire pilots.
[6] He continued by training as a psychiatrist at Warlingham Park Hospital, a psychiatric facility in Surrey, where he successfully completed a diploma in Psychological Medicine in 1948.
While studying the dreams of insulin coma therapy patients, he became interested in the work of Swiss psychologist Carl Jung.
[3][1] In 1951, at age 35, Sandison joined the staff at the Powick psychiatric hospital, a large former Victorian style 'lunatic asylum' near Malvern, as a consultant, and set about improving the run-down facility.
[5] In 1952 during a visit to Switzerland, he came in contact with Albert Hofmann at Sandoz, who had discovered the effects of hallucinogenic drug LSD by accident.
[5] Sandison started by using LSD on his patients in Powick whose psychoanalysis was not advancing their therapy and he recorded significant success even in the most severe cases.
[10] Returning to the Shetland Isles where he was born, arguing that it would be more practical and economical than flying patients to the Scottish mainland he rebuilt the community's ailing psychiatric services from 1975 to 1982.
He later spent the rest of his working life on psychosexual medicine and family planning at the Margaret Pyke centre in London.
[1] Papers from 1940 to 2000 relating to Sanderson's career including personal memories and a typescript autobiographical draft are held in the Welcome Collection listed by the National archives.