Schizophrenia

Unifying theories of psychedelic drug effects

This review (2018) investigates historic and current theories on how psychedelics work. The work is first grounded by describing the (subjective) effects of psychedelics. The paper concludes that a commonality between theories is that ‘normal’ brain processes are disturbed. Thus leading to more unconstrained thoughts under psychedelics.

Authors

  • Swanson, L. R.

Published

Frontiers in Pharmacology
meta Study

Abstract

How do psychedelic drugs produce their characteristic range of acute effects in perception, emotion, cognition, and sense of self? How do these effects relate to the clinical efficacy of psychedelic-assisted therapies? Efforts to understand psychedelic phenomena date back more than a century in Western science. In this article I review theories of psychedelic drug effects and highlight key concepts which have endured over the last 125 years of psychedelic science. First, I describe the subjective phenomenology of acute psychedelic effects using the best available data. Next, I review late 19th-century and early 20th-century theories-model psychoses theory, filtration theory, and psychoanalytic theory-and highlight their shared features. I then briefly review recent findings on the neuropharmacology and neurophysiology of psychedelic drugs in humans. Finally, I describe recent theories of psychedelic drug effects which leverage 21st-century cognitive neuroscience frameworks-entropic brain theory, integrated information theory, and predictive processing-and point out key shared features that link back to earlier theories. I identify an abstract principle which cuts across many theories past and present: psychedelic drugs perturb universal brain processes that normally serve to constrain neural systems central to perception, emotion, cognition, and sense of self. I conclude that making an explicit effort to investigate the principles and mechanisms of psychedelic drug effects is a uniquely powerful way to iteratively develop and test unifying theories of brain function.

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Research Summary of 'Unifying theories of psychedelic drug effects'

Introduction

Classic psychedelic molecules such as LSD, DMT, psilocybin and mescaline produce wide-ranging changes in perception, emotion, cognition and the sense of self, yet how a single class of drugs can elicit such diverse subjective effects remains poorly understood. Swanson traces how Western scientific inquiry has advanced through multiple "waves" of psychedelic research over 125 years and identifies five persistent gaps: (1) explaining the atypical diversity of acute effects, (2) linking receptor-level pharmacology to systems-level brain dynamics, (3) mapping brain changes to phenomenology, (4) clarifying relationships with psychotic disorders, and (5) understanding which drug-induced changes enable lasting clinical benefit. This review sets out to survey historical and contemporary theories of psychedelic effects, to characterise the core phenomenology and long-term outcomes that require explanation, and to assess recent formalised cognitive‑neuroscience frameworks that might serve as the foundation for a unifying theory. Swanson aims to identify enduring abstract principles that recur across older filtration and psychoanalytic ideas and newer accounts such as entropic brain theory, integrated information theory, and predictive processing, and to show how these frameworks could be operationalised into a quantitative unifying account of psychedelic effects.

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Study Details

  • Study Type
    meta
  • Journal
    Frontiers in Pharmacology
  • Topic
    Schizophrenia
  • APA Citation

    Swanson, L. R. (2018). Unifying theories of psychedelic drug effects. Frontiers in Pharmacology, 9. https://doi.org/10.3389/fphar.2018.00172

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Basedow, L. A., Riemer, T. G., Reiche, S. et al. · Frontiers in Pharmacology (2021)

The effects of tryptamine psychedelics in the brain: a meta-analysis of functional and review of molecular imaging studies

Castelhano, J. M., Lima, G. M., Teixeira, M. et al. · Frontiers in Pharmacology (2021)

Trips and Neurotransmitters: Discovering Principled Patterns across 6,850 Hallucinogenic Experiences

Ballentine, G., Friedman, S. F., Bzdok, D. · Science Advances (2021)

44 cited
Research abuses against people of colour and other vulnerable groups in early psychedelic research

Strauss, D., de la Salle, S., Sloshower, J. A. et al. · Journal of Medical Ethics (2021)

Future Directions for Clinical Psilocybin Research: The Relaxed Symptom Network

Lewis-Healey, E., Laukkonen, R., Van Elk, M. · Psyarxiv (2021)

1 cited
From hallucinations to synaesthesia: a circular inference account of unimodal and multimodal erroneous percepts in clinical and drug-induced psychosis

Leptourgos, P., Bouttier, V., Denève, S. et al. · Psyarxiv (2021)

12 cited
The Potential Role of Psychedelic Drugs in Mental Health Care of the Future

Gründer, G., Jungaberle, H., Gründer, G. · Pharmacopsychiatry (2021)

LSD alters dynamic integration and segregation in the human brain

Luppi, A. I., Carhart-Harris, R. L., Roseman, L. et al. · NeuroImage (2021)

141 cited
The entropic tongue: Disorganization of natural language under LSD

Sanz, C., Pallavicini, C., Carrillo, F. et al. · Consciousness and Cognition (2021)

24 cited
Learning to Let Go: A Cognitive-Behavioral Model of How Psychedelic Therapy Promotes Acceptance

Wolff, M., Evens, R., Mertens, L. J. et al. · Frontiers in Psychiatry (2020)

Embedding existential psychology within psychedelic science: reduced death anxiety as a mediator of the therapeutic effects of psychedelics.

Moreton, S. G., Szalla, L., Menzies, R. E. et al. · Psychopharmacology (2019)

47 cited
Toward a contextual psychedelic-assisted therapy: Perspectives from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and contextual behavioral science

Luoma, J. B., Sabucedo, P., Eriksson, J. et al. · Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science (2019)

Current perspectives on psychedelic therapy: use of serotonergic hallucinogens in clinical interventions

Richards, W. A., Garcia-Romeu, A. · International Review of Psychiatry (2018)

Psychedelics, meditation, and self-consciousness

Milliere, R., Carhart-Harris, R. L., Roseman, L. et al. · Frontiers in Psychology (2018)

Dark Classics in Chemical Neuroscience: Mescaline

Cassels, B. K., Sáez-Briones, P. · ACS Chemical Neuroscience (2018)

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