Attitudes toward psychedelics strongly predict actual use among college students, explaining 85.6% of the variance in lifetime use. Male, sexual-minority, older, and non-religious students, as well as those who had used other substances, held more positive attitudes, which in turn made them more likely to have used psychedelics. Lifetime psychedelic use was directly associated with better mental health. A new 12-item Psychedelic Attitudes Scale (PAS) was validated in a sample of 466 liberal arts college students and showed good psychometric properties.
A 4-day meditation intervention produced immediate increases in mindfulness and resilience that were sustained at a 3-month follow-up, while a relaxation retreat showed only short-term gains. Meditation specifically strengthened resting-state functional connectivity between the left rostral anterior cingulate cortex and the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, precuneus, and angular gyrus. Changes in connectivity between the rACC and dmPFC mediated the relationship between improvements in mindfulness and resilience and correlated with resilience changes both immediately and at 3 months. These neural changes may help protect against psychiatric disorders by improving stress-related brain mechanisms.