AbstractBackground and AimsResearch on psychedelic-assisted therapy (PAT), a promising treatment option for major depression, has not revealed if potential clients show preferences about the demographic characteristics of providers comparable to those common in other forms of psychotherapy. Previous work suggests that honoring comparable client preferences can enhance therapeutic outcomes. This...
Background: Individuals who use psychedelics take efforts to mitigate unintended consequences. Despite the demonstrated utility of analogous protective behavioral strategies (PBS) assessments for other substances, no standardized scale exists to capture these protective strategies for psychedelic use. Objective: The present study addresses a notable gap concerning the assessment of psychedelic...
Psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy has established antidepressant effects. Cannabis users appear to expect high doses administered in a session much like psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy to create comparable subjective effects. The current studies explored expectations of antidepressant effects of such cannabis-assisted sessions to replicate and extend previous work. Users not only expected a...
Links between cannabis use and psychosis generate research and media attention. Cannabis users have outscored non-users on the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire-Brief (SPQ-B) in multiple studies, but previous work suggests that groups do not differ if biased items are removed. The present study examined links between schizotypal personality and cannabis use in a large sample recruited from...
Promising outcomes of Psilocybin-Assisted Therapy (PAT) for depression have generated concerted efforts to replicate, extend, and refine protocols to maximize efficacy. Psychotherapy research reveals that clients benefit most when important components of treatment align with their personal preferences. One open question related to PAT concerns the importance of the psilocybin experience of the...
Depression treatments succeed with many but leave others unimproved, and they can generate concerns about side effects, time, and cost. Psilocybin has generated media attention and empirical support for antidepressant effects, but lay impressions of its effectiveness are unclear. Although perceptions of treatment credibility contribute to outcome, beliefs about the credibility of...
ABSTRACT Ketamine, a novel treatment for depression, has generated considerable interest and research. Few experiments address lay impressions of the credibility of ketamine treatment relative to another popular intervention for depression, CBT. Over 500 participants with depressive symptoms read descriptions of CBT, ketamine, and a treatment that combined the two. Descriptions included pros...
Abstract Background Ayahuasca's effects on symptoms of depression have generated considerable optimism. Clients frequently report more concern about some symptoms than others, and available treatments alter symptoms differentially. Few studies address the symptom specificity of this psychoactive brew. Aims We examined self-reported effects of ayahuasca on the individual symptoms of depression...
Background: Despite tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)’s reputation for creating dramatic effects at high doses, empirical work rarely addresses cannabis’s impact on subjective responses common to the tryptamine psychedelics. We focused on these effects because they have preceded and covaried with the therapeutic impact of psilocybin in previous work. Aims: The current study examined if self-reported...
Abstract Objective Given the growing popularity of ayahuasca and other hallucinogens, we sought to identify related expectancies and their role in why people might use this psychoactive brew rather than classic hallucinogens like LSD or psilocybin. Method Experienced users (N = 139) completed an online survey about their use of hallucinogens (including ayahuasca), how their ayahuasca...
Ayahuasca, a plant-based hallucinogen that serves as a spiritual medicine in South America, has improved depression in at least one placebo-controlled clinical trial. Case studies suggest that dramatic behavioral changes often follow the Ayahuasca ceremony, but most explanations of antidepressant effects focus on changes in mindfulness. This study investigated whether both mindfulness and...
Given the growing popularity of Ayahuasca, we sought to identify why people might use this psychoactive brew rather than classic hallucinogens like LSD or psilocybin. Experienced users (N=139) completed an online survey about their use of hallucinogens, including ayahuasca, how their ayahuasca experiences differed from those with other hallucinogens, and their willingness to use ayahuasca over...