Extended difficulties following the use of psychedelic drugs: A mixed methods study

Long-term adverse experiences following psychedelic use can persist for weeks, months, or even years, and are relatively unexplored in psychedelic research. Our convergent mixed-method study gained quantitative and qualitative data from 608 participants who reported extended difficulties following p...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one Vol. 18; no. 10; p. e0293349
Main Authors: Evans, Jules, Robinson, Oliver C., Argyri, Eirini Ketzitzidou, Suseelan, Shayam, Murphy-Beiner, Ashleigh, McAlpine, Rosalind, Luke, David, Michelle, Katrina, Prideaux, Ed
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: San Francisco, CA USA Public Library of Science 24.10.2023
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Subjects:
Analysis
Biology and Life Sciences
Dosage and administration
Hallucinogenic drugs
Harm reduction
Licensing, certification and accreditation
Medicine and Health Sciences
Methods
Research and Analysis Methods
Social Sciences
United States
ISSN:1932-6203, 1932-6203
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Long-term adverse experiences following psychedelic use can persist for weeks, months, or even years, and are relatively unexplored in psychedelic research. Our convergent mixed-method study gained quantitative and qualitative data from 608 participants who reported extended difficulties following psychedelic experiences. Data was gathered on the context of use, the nature and duration of the challenges they experienced (including a written description of these), plus a range of possible risk factors and perceived causes. The most common forms of extended difficulty were feelings of anxiety and fear, existential struggle, social disconnection, depersonalization and derealization. For approximately one-third of the participants, problems persisted for over a year, and for a sixth, they endured for more than three years. It was found that a shorter duration of difficulties was predicted by knowledge of dose, drug type and lower levels of difficulty reported during the psychoactive experience, while a narrower range of difficulties was predicted by taking the drug in a guided setting. Implications for psychedelic harm reduction are discussed.
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Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0293349