I've been looking, and I found some interesting things. In J.Org.Chem. (1986) 51(12), 2332-2342, the authors managed to reduce a fairly sensitive indoleacetamide to a tryptamine with a 95% yield using DIBALH (diisobutylaluminum hydride). Its certainly somewhat expensive, but for results like that, its more than worth the money.
LAH has indeed been used a great deal. I guess the reason I was shy about it was that the yields for indoleacetamide reductions using it range from the mid 20% range to nearly quantitative, and I thought one of the more new reducing agents might be a little more selective and predictable. However, considering the amount of synthetic infrastructure based on it, and its ubiquitous nature in the modern lab, I decided to pay close attention to the techniques used in later examples in the literature based on LAH with high yields. The following represent the
Arzneim.Forsch. (1999) 49(2), 96 - 105. -- 85-90% yield of several tryptamines
J.Labelled Compd.Radiopharm. (1997) 39(
, 677-684. -- 75% yields of 5-MeODMT, 76% yields of tryptamine
J.Med.Chem. (1999) 42(6), 1106 - 1111. -- 93% of a thienopyrolyl analog od DMT
So, DIBALH appears to be the reagent of choice, though LAH comes in a respectable second place.