Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy-A Systematic Review of Associated Psychological Interventions
This review (2022) explored the use of structured associated psychotherapeutic interventions in psychedelic clinical research to construct a picture of what models of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy are currently adopted in such research. Common principles, points of divergence and future directions for such interventions are also discussed.
Authors
- Kim Kuypers
- Johannes Ramaekers
Published
Abstract
Modern clinical research on psychedelics is generating interesting outcomes in a wide array of clinical conditions when psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy is delivered to appropriately screened participants and in controlled settings. Still, a number of patients relapse or are less responsive to such treatments. Individual and contextual factors (i.e., set and setting) seem to play a role in shaping the psychedelic experience and in determining clinical outcomes. These findings, coupled with data from the literature on the effectiveness of psychotherapy, frame the therapeutic context as a potential moderator of clinical efficacy, highlighting the need to investigate how to functionally employ environmental and relational factors. In this review, we performed a structured search through two databases (i.e., PubMed/Medline and Scopus) to identify records of clinical studies on psychedelics which used and described a structured associated psychotherapeutic intervention. The aim is to construct a picture of what models of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy are currently adopted in clinical research and to report on their clinical outcomes. Ad-hoc and adapted therapeutic methods were identified. Common principles, points of divergence and future directions are highlighted and discussed with special attention toward therapeutic stance, degree of directiveness and the potential suggestive effects of information provided to patients.
Research Summary of 'Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy-A Systematic Review of Associated Psychological Interventions'
Introduction
Clinical research on psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy (PAT) has generated promising outcomes across a broad range of treatment-refractory conditions, yet a substantial proportion of patients either fail to respond or experience relapse following treatment. Growing evidence implicates individual factors ('set') and contextual factors ('setting') as modulators of both the psychedelic experience and clinical outcomes, situating the psychotherapeutic framework as a potential determinant of therapeutic efficacy. Psychedelics appear to enhance neuroplasticity and environmental sensitivity — increasing susceptibility to suggestion during and after the drug session — implying that the quality and structure of accompanying psychological interventions may critically shape treatment outcomes. Despite these theoretical grounds and preliminary evidence, the field lacked a systematic characterisation of the psychotherapeutic models employed in clinical psychedelic research, their structural features, and their comparative clinical outcomes. This systematic review aimed to identify all clinical studies on psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy that described a structured psychotherapeutic intervention, to characterise the models employed, to compare their structural features and clinical outcomes, and to highlight areas of convergence and divergence relevant to the future development of PAT.
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Cavarra, M., Falzone, A., Ramaekers, J. G., Kuypers, K. P. C., & Mento, C. (2022). Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy-A Systematic Review of Associated Psychological Interventions. Frontiers in Psychology, 13. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.887255
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