Longitudinal associations between psychedelic use and meditation practices in the United States and the United Kingdom. 2024

Otto Simonsson, and Walter Osika, and Cecilia U D Stenfors, and Simon B Goldberg, and Ludwig Honk, and Peter S Hendricks
Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.

BACKGROUND Previous research has proposed that there may be potential synergies between psychedelic and meditation interventions, but there are still knowledge gaps that merit further investigation. METHODS Using a longitudinal observational research design with samples representative of the US and UK adult population with regard to sex, age, and ethnicity (N = 9732), we investigated potential associations between self-reported psychedelic use and meditation practice. RESULTS The follow-up survey was completed by 7667 respondents (79% retention rate), with 100 respondents reporting psychedelic use during the 2-month study period (1.3% of follow-up respondents). In covariate-adjusted regression models, psychedelic use during the study period was associated with greater increases in the number of days of mindfulness meditation practice in the past week (B = 0.40, p = 0.004). Among those who reported psychedelic use during the study period, covariate-adjusted regression models revealed that the subjective experience of insight during respondents' most intense psychedelic experience in that period was also associated with greater increases in the number of days of mindfulness and loving-kindness or compassion meditation practice in the past week (B = 0.42, p = 0.021; B = 0.38, p = 0.017). Notably, more days of loving-kindness or compassion meditation practice in the past week at baseline was associated with less severe subjective feelings of death or dying during respondents' most intense psychedelic experience in the study period (B = -0.29, p = 0.037). CONCLUSIONS Psychedelic use might lead to greater engagement with meditation practices such as mindfulness meditation, while meditation practices such as loving-kindness or compassion medication might buffer against certain challenging experiences associated with psychedelic use.

UI MeSH Term Description Entries
D004644 Emotions Those affective states which can be experienced and have arousing and motivational properties. Feelings,Regret,Emotion,Feeling,Regrets
D004645 Empathy An individual's objective and insightful awareness of the feelings and behavior of another person. It should be distinguished from sympathy, which is usually nonobjective and noncritical. It includes caring, which is the demonstration of an awareness of and a concern for the good of others. (From Bioethics Thesaurus, 1992) Caring,Compassion
D006113 United Kingdom Country in northwestern Europe including Great Britain and the northern one-sixth of the island of Ireland, located between the North Sea and north Atlantic Ocean. The capital is London. Great Britain,Isle of Man
D006213 Hallucinogens Drugs capable of inducing illusions, hallucinations, delusions, paranoid ideations, and other alterations of mood and thinking. Despite the name, the feature that distinguishes these agents from other classes of drugs is their capacity to induce states of altered perception, thought, and feeling that are not experienced otherwise. Hallucinogen,Hallucinogenic Agent,Hallucinogenic Drug,Hallucinogenic Substance,Psychedelic,Psychedelic Agent,Psychedelic Agents,Psychotomimetic Agent,Psychotomimetic Agents,Hallucinogenic Agents,Hallucinogenic Drugs,Hallucinogenic Substances,Psychedelics,Agent, Hallucinogenic,Agent, Psychedelic,Agent, Psychotomimetic,Agents, Hallucinogenic,Agents, Psychedelic,Agents, Psychotomimetic,Drug, Hallucinogenic,Drugs, Hallucinogenic,Substance, Hallucinogenic,Substances, Hallucinogenic
D006801 Humans Members of the species Homo sapiens. Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D000328 Adult A person having attained full growth or maturity. Adults are of 19 through 44 years of age. For a person between 19 and 24 years of age, YOUNG ADULT is available. Adults
D014481 United States A country in NORTH AMERICA between CANADA and MEXICO.
D019122 Meditation A state of consciousness in which the individual eliminates environmental stimuli from awareness so that the mind can focus on a single thing, producing a state of relaxation and relief from stress. A wide variety of techniques are used to clear the mind of stressful outside interferences. It includes meditation therapy. (Mosby's Medical, Nursing, and Allied Health Dictionary, 4th ed) Transcendental Meditation,Meditation, Transcendental

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