Psychological well-being increased two weeks after a psychedelic experience and remained elevated at four weeks. Higher ratings of a 'mystical-type experience' positively influenced this change in well-being, while 'challenging experience' and 'visual effects' did not. Having 'clear intentions' for the experience fostered mystical-type experiences. A positive 'set' and recreational intentions reduced the likelihood of a challenging experience. The trait 'absorption' and higher drug doses amplified all aspects of the acute experience. Baseline traits had the strongest effect on well-being change, underscoring the importance of extra-pharmacological factors in shaping responses to psychedelics.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, six common patterns of drug use emerged in a large citizen science cohort. Most drug-using groups had worse average mental health scores than drug-naive individuals at all timepoints, and those who increased their drug use saw their mental health worsen over time. However, people who used both psychedelics and cannabis showed average improvements in depression, anxiety, and overall mental health from before the pandemic to January 2022, becoming comparable to the drug-naive group. Cannabis-only users did not show this improvement; their worse mental health scores persisted. These findings suggest that beneficial effects of psychedelics on mood and anxiety may extend beyond controlled conditions.
A single high dose of psilocybin (25 mg) produced lasting functional and anatomical brain changes in healthy, psychedelic-naive adults, detected from one hour to one month later. Diffusion imaging showed decreased axial diffusivity in prefrontal-subcortical tracts, correlating with reduced brain network modularity, which in turn correlated with improved well-being. Increased cortical signal entropy shortly after dosing predicted better psychological well-being at one month, with next-day psychological insight mediating this relationship. No such effects occurred with a 1 mg placebo dose. Cognitive flexibility, psychological insight, and well-being also increased at one month.