Major life changes following psychedelic use: A retrospective survey among people using psychedelics naturalistically
Aday, J. S., Baker, A., Barron, J., Boehnke, K. F., Glynos, N., Herberholz, M., Kruger, D. J., Pouyan, N., Woolley, J. D.
This survey (n=581) evaluates the Psychedelic-related Major Life Changes Questionnaire (P-MLCQ) in people reporting naturalistic psychedelic use. It finds that 82.96% of participants reported major life changes in at least one domain, including goals (53.7%), values (53.53%), and spirituality (49.05%), with changes rated highly positively (M = 4.64/5). Frequency of use correlated with more changes (r = 0.34), while education level was negatively associated with the number of changes (β = -0.137).
Abstract
Background: Psychedelic drugs show promise in facilitating a variety of long-term psychological changes, but they may also lead to unexpected major life changes that have not been captured by measures typically used in clinical trials.Aim: We aimed to develop a survey instrument that can characterize the quality and self-appraisal of psychedelic-related major life changes.Method: The Psychedelic-related Major Life Changes Questionnaire (P-MLCQ) was created to assess psychedelic-related major life changes across 10 different domains. We evaluated the survey in people reporting naturalistic psychedelic use (N = 581).Results: 482/581 participants (82.96%) reported a major life change in at least one domain influenced by their psychedelic use (M = 3.29, SD = 2.60), including changes in Goals (53.70%), Values (53.53%), Religion/spirituality (49.05%), Social activities (37.01%), Eating habits/diet (34.08%), Occupation/Line of work (32.36%), Hobbies (29.43%), Political views (14.97%), Sexuality (13.08%), and Marital status or a non-marital partner change (12.22%). Major life changes were rated highly positively (M = 4.64, SD = 0.61 on a 5-point scale). There was a positive relationship between frequency of psychedelic use over the last five years and total number of psychedelic-related major life changes (r = 0.34, p < .001). Education level was negatively associated with the total number of psychedelic-related major life changes endorsed (β = -.137, p < .01).Conclusion: Our results support that psychedelic use can be followed by major life changes. Future research is needed to examine the generalizability of these results in representative samples that are less susceptible to positive bias.