Increased nature relatedness and decreased authoritarian political views after psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression.

Taylor Lyons,Robin L Carhart-Harris

doi:10.1177/0269881117748902

Abstract

Rationale:Previous research suggests that classical psychedelic compounds can induce lasting changes in personality traits, attitudes and beliefs in both healthy subjects and patient populations.Aim:Here we sought to investigate the effects of psilocybin on nature relatedness and libertarian–authoritarian political perspective in patients with treatment-resistant depression (TRD).Methods:This open-label pilot study with a mixed-model design studied the effects of psilocybin on measures of nature relatedness and libertarian–authoritarian political perspective in patients with moderate to severe TRD (n=7) versus age-matched non-treated healthy control subjects (n=7). Psilocybin was administered in two oral dosing sessions (10 mg and 25 mg) 1 week apart. Main outcome measures were collected 1 week and 7–12 months after the second dosing session. Nature relatedness and libertarian–authoritarian political perspective were assessed using the Nature Relatedness Scale (NR-6) and Political Perspective Questionnaire (PPQ-5), respectively.Results:Nature relatedness significantly increased (t(6)=−4.242, p=0.003) and authoritarianism significantly decreased (t(6)=2.120, p=0.039) for the patients 1 week after the dosing sessions. At 7–12 months post-dosing, nature relatedness remained significantly increased (t(5)=−2.707, p=0.021) and authoritarianism remained decreased at trend level (t(5)=−1.811, p=0.065). No differences were found on either measure for the non-treated healthy control subjects.Conclusions:This pilot study suggests that psilocybin with psychological support might produce lasting changes in attitudes and beliefs. Although it would be premature to infer causality from this small study, the possibility of drug-induced changes in belief systems seems sufficiently intriguing and timely to deserve further investigation.

Highlights

A growing body of evidence suggests that classical psychedelic compounds such as lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) (CarhartHarris et al, 2016b; Schmid and Liechti, 2017), psilocybin (Carhart-Harris et al, 2016a; Griffiths et al, 2016; Ross et al, 2016) and N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) in ayahuasca (Osorio Fde et al, 2015) can promote enduring changes in personality traits, attitudes and beliefs – and similar effects have recently been reported for 3,4-methylenedioxy-methamphetamine (MDMA), which shares some properties with classical psychedelic compounds (Wagner et al, 2017) albeit with some important differences (Carhart-Harris and Nutt, 2017)
No serious adverse events occurred as a result of the psilocybin administration, and the acute drug effects were well tolerated by all patients (see Carhart-Harris et al (2016a, 2017a) for more information)
The present study sought to investigate the effects of psilocybin with psychological support on nature relatedness and authoritarianism in patients with treatment-resistant depression (TRD)

Summary

Introduction

A growing body of evidence suggests that classical psychedelic compounds such as lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) (CarhartHarris et al, 2016b; Schmid and Liechti, 2017), psilocybin (Carhart-Harris et al, 2016a; Griffiths et al, 2016; Ross et al, 2016) and N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) in ayahuasca (Osorio Fde et al, 2015) can promote enduring changes in personality traits, attitudes and beliefs – and similar effects have recently been reported for 3,4-methylenedioxy-methamphetamine (MDMA), which shares some properties with classical psychedelic compounds (Wagner et al, 2017) albeit with some important differences (Carhart-Harris and Nutt, 2017). Focusing on psilocybin, a single high dose of this naturally occurring compound was associated with enduring increases in trait openness, psychological wellbeing and life satisfaction in healthy volunteers 14 months later (Griffiths et al, 2008; MacLean et al, 2011). Psychedelic drug users have been shown to exhibit greater optimism (or reduced pessimism) than non-users (Grob et al, 1996) as well as increased concern for others, nature and the environment when compared with users of cannabis, amphetamine or heroin (Lerner and Lyvers, 2006). Nature relatedness, defined as the subjective sense of connection with the natural environment, is associated with lower levels of anxiety

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