Substance Use Disorders (SUD)Personality & Trait FactorsInterpersonal Functioning & Social Connectedness

Hallucinogen use predicts reduced recidivism among substance-involved offenders under community corrections supervision

Naturalistic hallucinogen use among 25,622 substance-involved individuals under community corrections supervision was associated with a lower likelihood of supervision failure (adjusted OR = 0.60, 95% CI 0.46–0.79). These longitudinal results suggest hallucinogens may be linked to greater abstinence from alcohol and other drugs and increased prosocial behaviour in a high-recidivism population, though they do not establish causality.

Authors

  • Peter Hendricks
  • Matthew Johnson

Published

Journal of Psychopharmacology
individual Study

Abstract

Hallucinogen-based interventions may benefit substance use populations, but contemporary data informing the impact of hallucinogens on addictive behavior are scarce. Given that many individuals in the criminal justice system engage in problematic patterns of substance use, hallucinogen treatments also may benefit criminal justice populations. However, the relationship between hallucinogen use and criminal recidivism is unknown. In this longitudinal study, we examined the relationship between naturalistic hallucinogen use and recidivism among individuals under community corrections supervision with a history of substance involvement ( n=25,622). We found that hallucinogen use predicted a reduced likelihood of supervision failure (e.g. noncompliance with legal requirements including alcohol and other drug use) while controlling for an array of potential confounding factors (odds ratio (OR)=0.60 (0.46, 0.79)). Our results suggest that hallucinogens may promote alcohol and other drug abstinence and prosocial behavior in a population with high rates of recidivism.

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Research Summary of 'Hallucinogen use predicts reduced recidivism among substance-involved offenders under community corrections supervision'

Introduction

Earlier research and recent clinical work suggest that classical hallucinogens can occasion profound psychological experiences (for example, mystical- or peak-type experiences), increase openness and autobiographical memory recall, and thereby produce long-lasting changes in attitudes and behaviour. Historical studies conducted in correctional settings reported apparent benefits of LSD- and psilocybin-assisted interventions on empathy, insight, treatment engagement and other outcomes, but those studies had major methodological flaws and did not provide conclusive evidence on recidivism. Regulatory barriers from the 1970s curtailed research for decades, but a contemporary renaissance in hallucinogen science has renewed interest in therapeutic applications for substance use and other psychiatric disorders. This study examined whether naturalistic hallucinogen use predicts supervision outcomes among a large sample of substance-involved individuals under community corrections supervision. Hendricks and colleagues used an observational, longitudinal approach to test the hypothesis that a DSM-IV diagnosis of any hallucinogen use disorder would be associated with reduced recidivism (operationalised as supervision failure), independent of a range of sociodemographic, criminal-history and other substance-use covariates. The authors framed this analysis as a real-world precursor to randomised clinical trials in correctional populations.

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Study Details

References (14)

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