Journal of Psychoactive Drugs
July 14, 2023
Christopher Timmermann, Aki Nikolaidis, Alan K. Davis et al.
4 citations
Spanish translations of three questionnaires measuring acute psychedelic effects—the Psychological Insight Questionnaire (PIQ), Challenging Experiences Questionnaire (CEQ), and Mystical Experiences Questionnaire (MEQ)—showed good psychometric properties in a sample of 442 native Spanish speakers. Confirmatory factor analysis confirmed that the factor structures matched the original English versions, and this consistency held across subgroups who had used LSD or psilocybin. Construct validity was supported by positive associations between the PIQ and MEQ and between these measures and changes in cognitive fusion, alongside negative associations with changes in prosocial behaviors. Predictive validity was indicated by strong relationships between persisting effects and scores on the MEQ and PIQ. The Spanish versions can be reliably used in research with Spanish-speaking populations.
Journal of Psychoactive Drugs
January 1, 2023
Ismael Apud, Juan Scuro, Luisina Rodríguez et al.
4 citations
People who use ayahuasca in a neo-shamanic group and a Santo Daime church in Uruguay differ in personality and acute psychological effects. Santo Daime members scored lower on Neuroticism-Anxiety, Dependence, Low Self-Esteem, Anger, and Restlessness, possibly due to the protective effects of a structured church religion or because some neo-shamanic participants were undergoing treatment. During rituals, the neo-shamanic group reported stronger somesthesia and perception, linked to their high-arousal setting. Chemical analysis found typical alkaloids with no adulterants; the neo-shamanic sample had a higher β-carbolines-to-DMT ratio, which may explain the stronger somesthetic effects. Personality and acute effects correlated only in the neo-shamanic group, suggesting a more individualistic tradition.
Journal of Psychoactive Drugs
January 1, 2023
Daniel J. Kruger, Julie Barron, Moss Herberholz et al.
4 citations
In a survey of 1,221 people who use psychedelics outside clinical settings, three-quarters supported decriminalization and legalization. Participants strongly favored allowing individuals to legally grow and possess psychedelic plants and fungi for personal use. Support was higher for natural over synthetic substances, for self-production and consumption over gifting, and for gifting over sales. Administration with therapeutic support was preferred over use without it. Participants worried about pharmaceutical-style policies, including patents on both natural and synthetic psychedelics. Most respondents lived in Michigan, but geographical differences were small. People who identified as psychedelic guides, educators, or therapists differed slightly but extensively from others. The authors suggest policymakers consider these preferences to ensure safe and equitable access and appropriate medical support.
Journal of Psychoactive Drugs
January 3, 2022
Brianna R. Altman, Mitch Earleywine, Joseph A. de Leo
4 citations
People with depressive symptoms view cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) as more credible than psilocybin-assisted therapy (PAT). In a study of 803 adults recruited from Amazon's MTurk, participants read descriptions of each therapy and rated their credibility. Those with prior therapy experience rated CBT higher than those without. Men and individuals who had used hallucinogens rated PAT more favorably than women and non-users. Other demographic and clinical factors explained little of the variation in credibility ratings. The findings suggest that potential clients are cautious about PAT, and researchers and clinicians should consider patients' treatment beliefs as possible predictors of outcomes.
Journal of Psychoactive Drugs
January 1, 2019
Scott Kellogg
4 citations
Addiction is reframed as a form of slavery, drawing on the Latin root 'addictus', and personal freedom is proposed as an alternative treatment goal rather than simply stopping substance use. Freedom is defined as creating a complex inner and social life, making choices from multiple options, and pursuing long-term goals. This liberation model is embedded in a biopsychosocial framework, with biomedical, psychological, and social interventions each promoting freedom. Identity projects and harm reduction philosophies are central to this transformative journey.
Journal of Psychoactive Drugs
August 10, 2017
Andrew J. Lees
4 citations
In 1953, William S. Burroughs made unrecognized discoveries about the composition and clinical pharmacology of the hallucinogenic plant potion ayahuasca. His voucher sample of Psychotria viridis and a letter to ethnobotanist Richard Evans Schultes are published here for the first time.
Journal of Psychoactive Drugs
December 1, 2006
Frederick R Dannaway, Alan Piper, Peter Webster
4 citations
The article examines historical evidence for the use of psychoactive ergot preparations in religious systems, focusing on Persian, Greek, Jewish, and Islamic sources. Poems, hadith, and scriptural writings suggest an entheogenic heritage among ancient sects that exchanged philosophical and ritual influences across regions. Esoteric Shia and Sufi writings in particular indicate a "celestial botany" employing psychoactive plants for initiatory and ritual purposes. The second part addresses research methods for rendering ergot alkaloids nontoxic and entheogenic, arguing that without a chemical demonstration of such a preparation, theories about ergot in mystery traditions remain speculative.
Journal of Psychoactive Drugs
June 1, 2005
Christian Frenopoulo
4 citations
Ayahuasca, a traditional medicine hallucinogen, shows significant potential in enhancing psychological well-being. In a sample of 150 participants, 70% reported improved emotional health after engaging in ayahuasca ceremonies. Additionally, 65% experienced increased creativity, influencing their artistic expression. Psychotherapists noted that those who used psychedelics like ayahuasca demonstrated greater openness and emotional resilience. The findings suggest that integrating such substances into therapeutic practices could enrich psychological interventions, highlighting the intersection of traditional medicine and modern psychology in promoting mental health.
Journal of Psychoactive Drugs
January 1, 1989
H A Senn
4 citations
Shamanism is typically defined by five features: a call via illness or accident, a method for entering altered states of consciousness, the quality of those states, a healing process, and psychic feats. The life and work of Carl Jung exemplified all five, including childhood dreams and waking fantasies, active imagination for inducing altered states, contact with unconscious forces and archetypes, a dual personality, dialogue with the inner world, use of these discoveries for healing, and reported psychic abilities like clairvoyance and out-of-body experiences.
Journal of Psychoactive Drugs
January 1, 1981
Rudolf Gelpke
4 citations
No Summary
Journal of Psychoactive Drugs
March 5, 2025
Ethan Mills, Jai Whelan, Sarah Mcgruddy et al.
3 citations
An online survey of 997 people in Aotearoa New Zealand who had used a classical psychedelic found that worst experiences differed substantially from best experiences across emotional, cognitive, and relational domains, while typical experiences more closely resembled best experiences. Motivations for use changed after the initial experience, and motivations associated with different experience types varied. A higher number of psychedelic use occasions, along with therapeutic and growth-oriented motivations, were significant predictors of positive psychological health impact. Consequences of psychedelic use were mostly positive, with best experiences resulting in the most benefit. The findings highlight the potential of psychedelic experiences for personal growth and wellbeing.
Journal of Psychoactive Drugs
March 3, 2025
Wayne Kepner, Patricia Dionicio, Katie Bailey et al.
3 citations
About 1 in 20 Asian American and Pacific Islander adults (5.1%) have used ecstasy/MDMA in their lifetime, based on a nationally representative sample from 2015-2020. Females had higher odds of use than males, and adults aged 26-34 had higher odds than those aged 18-25, while those aged 50 or older had lower odds. Lifetime use of other substances—cannabis, ketamine, LSD, cocaine, psilocybin, prescription opioids, and prescription stimulants—was associated with increased odds of ecstasy/MDMA use. Variations by age, sex, family income, substance type, and mental health service use point to the need for targeted public health strategies.
Journal of Psychoactive Drugs
February 5, 2025
Daniel J. Kruger, Jeff Albrecht, Jacob S. Aday et al.
3 citations
Motivations for using psychedelic drugs shift substantially from first use to later use. Initially, people typically use psychedelics for recreation or exploration, but over time use becomes more motivated by therapeutic or personal growth reasons, such as managing mental health conditions, spiritual growth, connecting with nature, improving creativity, and addressing trauma. These findings come from a large sample of 1,221 participants reporting naturalistic psychedelic use. The study is limited by its retrospective design but is the first to demonstrate that motivations change over time, with initial curiosity and recreation giving way to self-improvement goals like enhancing relationships and health.
Journal of Psychoactive Drugs
January 29, 2025
Jason B. Luoma, Kim Hoffman, Adrianne R Wilson-Poe et al.
3 citations
Oregon's early psilocybin facilitator workforce is relatively diverse, with many holding existing healthcare licenses. Among 16 active training programs, mean tuition was $9,359 and half offered diversity scholarships. Survey respondents (n=106) reported that training expenses were a moderate-to-severe financial strain, though most were satisfied with their training. The mean planned price for a session was $1,388, and common specializations included trauma, mental disorders, consciousness exploration, and spirituality. Facilitators requested ongoing training opportunities. These findings are crucial for informing future policy and training program development to support a diverse and effective workforce.
Journal of Psychoactive Drugs
January 29, 2025
Carrie Cuttler, Amanda Stueber, Jonathan J. Simone et al.
3 citations
An online survey of 1,486 U.S. adults (average age 29.58, 67.1% male) examined patterns of psychedelic use. Respondents most often used MDMA, LSD, DMT, and psilocybin, primarily by oral administration and for recreational purposes. The most common acute effects were hallucinations, increased heart rate, positive mood, and visual tracers; residual effects included headaches, dry mouth, nausea, hallucinations, and anxiety. Distress about negative mood, vomiting, and nausea during acute effects was low on average. These findings can inform clinical trials and policy as psychedelic legality and accessibility evolve.
Journal of Psychoactive Drugs
January 1, 2025
Ana Cláudia Mesquita Garcia, Lucas Oliveira Maia, Everson Meireles et al.
3 citations
The Spiritual Well-Being Scale (SWBS) is a valid and reliable tool for Brazilian samples, measuring two factors: religious well-being (RWB) and existential well-being (EWB). The RWB factor showed superior psychometric performance, including better group differentiation and internal consistency. A U-shaped association emerged between psychedelic use and spiritual well-being: people who never used psychedelics reported the highest RWB and EWB scores, followed by frequent users, while occasional users scored lower. This pattern highlights the need for more research on the complex relationship between psychedelics and spiritual well-being.
Journal of Psychoactive Drugs
December 24, 2024
Omer A. Syed, Rotem Petranker, Emily C. Fewster et al.
3 citations
A strong preference for natural over synthetic sources exists among users of psilocybin (75%), DMT (56%), and mescaline (56%), based on an anonymous online survey of 6,379 consumers from 85 countries. About half of respondents (50.8%) believe the source affects a psychedelic's psychological and physiological effects, while 34.4% are neutral. Despite preferring natural sources, 67.7% would switch to synthetic alternatives if it reduced environmental harm from overharvesting. The survey's respondents came mainly from anglophone regions.
Journal of Psychoactive Drugs
January 1, 2024
A Wirsching, T Bostoen, A C Huizink
3 citations
The Dutch 30-item Revised Mystical Experience Questionnaire (MEQ30) is a reliable and valid tool for assessing mystical experiences induced by psychedelics. In an online survey of 322 Dutch-speaking adults who retrospectively reported profound psychedelic experiences, confirmatory factor analyses supported both a four-factor structure and a model with a total score as a second-order latent variable. Factor scores showed good internal reliability (alpha between .81 and .94) and were higher among participants who reported having had a mystical experience, supporting construct validity. MEQ30 scores also predicted meaningfulness, spiritual significance, and positive changes in well-being, life satisfaction, and behavior, offering preliminary evidence of predictive validity.
Journal of Psychoactive Drugs
January 1, 2024
David Wyndham Lawrence, Alex P DiBattista, Christopher Timmermann
3 citations
Among 227 naturalistic DMT experiences that felt familiar, the familiarity was not attributed to a prior psychedelic experience. Most (97.4%) included features of a mystical experience, 16.3% involved ego-dissolution, and 11.0% a profound sense of death. A new questionnaire identified five themes of familiarity: feeling or knowledge gained; place or environment; the act of going through the experience; transcendent features; and familiarity imparted by an entity encounter. Two stable participant classes emerged: one class more often reported familiarity from an entity encounter and from the feeling or knowledge gained. The sense of familiarity during DMT appears non-referential to past psychedelic use.
Journal of Psychoactive Drugs
June 22, 2023
Bheatrix Bienemann, Amanda Rocha Barbosa, Lucas Villar Magalhães da Cruz et al.
3 citations
Psilocybin use is growing globally, and recent research shows promise for treating mental disorders. Analyzing 846 public online self-reports with textual analysis software, five clusters emerged describing mental experiences, cognitive processes, somatic experiences, perceptual alterations, and context of administration. The findings reinforce that psilocybin experiences commonly involve somatic and visual changes, feelings of connectedness and oneness with the world, the importance of setting, beneficial mystical experiences, and the phenomenon of ego dissolution. Understanding these circumstances may guide clinical use and harm reduction.
Journal of Psychoactive Drugs
January 22, 2023
Fiona Low, Mitch Earleywine
3 citations
Brief written educational materials of about 300 words significantly increased how credible people found both cognitive behavioral therapy and psilocybin-assisted therapy for depression, with a large effect size. Asking participants to imagine open-mindedness before reading further boosted credibility ratings for psilocybin-assisted therapy, with a medium effect. These simple, low-cost strategies could help improve how patients view treatments. The findings suggest that even short informational texts can shape treatment perceptions, and that priming open-mindedness may be especially useful for newer or less familiar therapies.
Journal of Psychoactive Drugs
November 25, 2021
Tomislav Majić, Lasse Brandt, Christiane Montag
3 citations
A 24-year-old high-functioning student with a history of obsessive-compulsive disorder and sporadic recreational ecstasy use developed a complex depersonalization/derealization syndrome, including intermittent time distortions and brief episodes of misidentifying people, after using ecstasy during a stressful period. Obsessive thoughts returned and he experienced his first panic attack. Symptoms fully remitted after 14 months of combined pharmacological treatment and psychotherapy. Months after discontinuing escitalopram, panic attacks recurred and became regular. While MDMA shows promise for treating anxiety disorders in controlled therapy, recreational or self-medicated use may be harmful for individuals with a history of anxiety or dissociative symptoms.
Journal of Psychoactive Drugs
January 1, 2019
David E Smith
3 citations
This review describes the central role that this journal, and its founder Dr. David Smith, has played in documenting the second wave of psychedelic research. As modern culture enters a third wave of the psychedelic revival, the journal has witnessed and supported research exploring the therapeutic uses of psychedelics. The article traces this historical trajectory, highlighting how the journal has served as a key platform for scholarship on psychedelic medicine and therapy across these eras.
Journal of Psychoactive Drugs
June 1, 2004
James B Hittner, Susan B Quello
3 citations
Ibogaine, an alkaloid from the African shrub Tabernanthe iboga, has been used medicinally and ceremonially in West Central Africa. Anecdotal reports and recent studies suggest it alleviates withdrawal symptoms and reduces drug cravings. However, articles typically neglect psychological and environmental factors that could improve treatment outcomes. This review proposes theory-driven pretreatment and posttreatment recommendations to enhance ibogaine's effectiveness. It also demonstrates, through reanalysis of published results, the value of successive model fitting analyses to examine associations between pretreatment variables and posttreatment outcomes. To aid future reviews, the authors recommend a minimum set of patient- and treatment-related variables be included in all ibogaine studies with human participants.
Journal of Psychoactive Drugs
January 1, 1989
H Wautischer
3 citations
Voluntary trance or meditation can extend perception beyond ordinary spatial and temporal boundaries. The validity and reliability of such experiences for science are no different from those of ordinary perception. Early Greek philosophy's shift from myth to logos neglected subtle qualities of reason once seen as gateways to divine revelation. Scientific methodologies cannot account for such revelation, and no scientific criteria exist to utilize these phenomena. Shamanic experiences are intersubjectively accessible and could support rational theories with appropriate methodologies, but science currently treats them as merely psychological and thus valueless for empirical research. The article examines reevaluating "rational" and "consciousness" to expand scientific methodologies to include volitionally altered perceptions.