Psychedelics not linked to mental health problems or suicidal behavior: A population study

@article{Johansen2015PsychedelicsNL,
  title={Psychedelics not linked to mental health problems or suicidal behavior: A population study},
  author={P{\aa}l-{\O}rjan Johansen and Teri Suzanne Krebs},
  journal={Journal of Psychopharmacology},
  year={2015},
  volume={29},
  pages={270 - 279}
}
A recent large population study of 130,000 adults in the United States failed to find evidence for a link between psychedelic use (lysergic acid diethylamide, psilocybin or mescaline) and mental health problems. Using a new data set consisting of 135,095 randomly selected United States adults, including 19,299 psychedelic users, we examine the associations between psychedelic use and mental health. After adjusting for sociodemographics, other drug use and childhood depression, we found no… 
View on SAGE
dependencias.pt
164 Citations
Highly Influential Citations
8
Background Citations
48
Methods Citations
2
Results Citations
11

Figures and Tables from this paper

164 Citations

Psychedelics and indicators of mental distress in adults : National Survey on Drug Use and Health 2008–2014
TLDR
No independent association between any recency of any psychedelic use and increased likelihood of past month psychological distress, past year suicidality, or everyday impairment was found, and this study strongly supports the results of previous population studies, as no independent risk from psychedelic use was found.
Past-year hallucinogen use in relation to psychological distress, depression, and suicidality among US adults.
Psychedelic psychiatry and the C-L psychiatrist: A primer
  • B. BarnettG. Greer
  • Psychology, Medicine
    Journal of the Academy of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry
  • 2021
On the Relationship between Classic Psychedelics and Suicidality: A Systematic Review.
TLDR
A systematic review of the relationship between classic psychedelics (both non-clinical psychedelic use and psychedelic therapy) and suicidality found mixed findings, with studies finding positive, negative, and no significant association.
Associations between lifetime classic psychedelic use and markers of physical health
TLDR
Investigating the associations between lifetime classic psychedelic use and three markers of physical health suggested that classic psychedelics may be beneficial to physical health.
Psychedelic drug use and schizotypy in young adults
TLDR
The findings suggest that psychedelic drug use is only weakly associated with psychosis-like symptoms, which is to a large extent explained by psychiatric comorbidities and use of other psychoactive substances.
The link between use of psychedelic drugs and mental health problems
TLDR
It is argued that the authors’ conclusions in their latest paper are not substantiated by their results and will propose supplemental analyses to validate or potentially revise their conclusions.
The relationships of classic psychedelic use with criminal behavior in the United States adult population
TLDR
Lifetime classic psychedelic use and psilocybin use per se with criminal behavior among over 480,000 United States adult respondents pooled from the last 13 available years of the National Survey on Drug Use and Health contribute to a compelling rationale for the initiation of clinical research with classic psychedelics, including p silocybin, in forensic settings.
Three Naturally-Occurring Psychedelics and Their Significance in the Treatment of Mental Health Disorders
TLDR
The three classic serotonergic naturally occurring psychedelics, psilocybin, ibogaine, and N, N-dimethyltryptamine are discussed, focusing on their pharmacological properties and clinical potential.
Psilocybin, psychological distress, and suicidality
TLDR
The objectives of the current research were to extend the analysis of Hendricks et al. (2015) by evaluating the associations of lifetime psilocybin use, per se, with past month psychological distress, past month suicidal thinking, past year suicidal planning, and past year suicide attempt in the United States adult population.
...
...

References

SHOWING 1-10 OF 87 REFERENCES
Psychedelics and Mental Health: A Population Study
TLDR
It was found that in several cases psychedelic use was associated with lower rate of mental health problems, and use of psychedelics was not found to be an independent risk factor formental health problems.
Substance use, suicidality, and adolescent-onset schizophrenia: an Israeli 10-year retrospective study.
TLDR
The suicide-attempting patients were found to have had more previous psychiatric admissions, a greater level of deliberate self-harm behavior, and a higher level of suicide ideation, but a decreased severity of psychotic symptoms.
Hallucinogen use predicts reduced recidivism among substance-involved offenders under community corrections supervision
TLDR
It is found that hallucinogen use predicted a reduced likelihood of supervision failure and may promote alcohol and other drug abstinence and prosocial behavior in a population with high rates of recidivism.
User perceptions of the benefits and harms of hallucinogenic drug use: A web-based questionnaire study
TLDR
The findings of this study support recent calls for a systematic investigation of the therapeutic potential of the classic hallucinogens and highlight the scope for empirical investigations of spiritual and psychodynamic phenomena.
Human hallucinogen research: guidelines for safety
TLDR
The unique history of human hallucinogens research is discussed, the risks of hallucinogen administration and safeguards for minimizing these risks are reviewed, and carefully conducted research may inform the treatment of psychiatric disorders, and may lead to advances in basic science.
Screening for serious mental illness in the general population with the K6 screening scale: results from the WHO World Mental Health (WMH) survey initiative
TLDR
The brevity and accuracy of the K6 and K10 scales make them attractive screens for SMI, and routine inclusion of either scale in clinical studies would create an important, and heretofore missing, crosswalk between community and clinical epidemiology.
Acute Adverse Reactions to Lsd in Clinical and Experimental use in the United Kingdom
  • N. Malleson
  • Psychology, Medicine
    British Journal of Psychiatry
  • 1971
It is well recognized that LSD (lysergide) can give serious adverse reactions, including suicide and prolonged psychosis; Smart and Bateman (1967) have reviewed the subject thoroughly. However,…
The recanting of earlier reported drug use by young adults.
TLDR
In this chapter, recanting rates are examined in nationally representative samples of high school seniors surveyed in the Monitoring the Future study as they are followed up on seven occasions through age 32.
Pilot study of the 5-HT2AR agonist psilocybin in the treatment of tobacco addiction
TLDR
An open-label pilot study administering moderate and high psilocybin doses within a structured 15-week smoking cessation treatment protocol demonstrated that 12 of 15 participants showed seven-day point prevalence abstinence at 6-month follow-up, substantially exceeds rates commonly reported for other behavioral and/or pharmacological therapies.
Harms associated with psychoactive substances: findings of the UK National Drug Survey
TLDR
Ecstasy, cannabis and LSD were ranked highest by users on both acute and chronic benefits, suggesting that users are relatively well informed about the harms associated with the drugs they use and that the current UK legal classification system is not acting to inform users of the harms of psychoactive substances.
...
...