Who Are You After Psychedelics? A Systematic Review and a Meta-Analysis of the Magnitude of Long-Term Effects of Serotonergic Psychedelics on Cognition/Creativity, Emotional Processing and Personality
This systematic review & meta-analysis (2024; s=10; n=304) synthesized data from contemporary studies, including both randomised and non-randomised controlled trials, to evaluate lasting effects of serotonergic psychedelics on cognition, creativity, emotional processing, and personality. Overall, no statistically significant effects were observed for most outcome measures; however, a meta-analysis of emotional recognition outcomes revealed faster reaction times in the active treatment groups for disgust and sadness.
Authors
- Nathalie Mason
- Brandon Weiss
- Colleen Loo
Published
Abstract
This systematic review and a meta-analysis synthesised the results from contemporary, randomized and non-randomized controlled studies to assess lasting (one week minimum) changes on cognition/creativity, emotional processing and personality from serotonergic psychedelics. PubMed, Embase and PsycInfo were searched in July 2022. Risk of bias was assessed using Rob 2.0 and ROBINS-I. Ten studies met the eligibility criteria which involved 304 participants. No statistically significant effects were found for the majority outcome measures across the three constructs. A meta-analysis of emotional recognition outcomes found an overall significant effect for faster reaction times in the active treatment groups for disgust (SMD=-0.63, 95% CI=[-1.01 to -0.25], I2= 65%) and sadness (SMD=-0.45, 95% CI=[-0.85 to -0.06], I2= 60%). Future research should include larger samples, better control conditions, standardized doses and longer follow-up periods to confirm these preliminary findings.
Research Summary of 'Who Are You After Psychedelics? A Systematic Review and a Meta-Analysis of the Magnitude of Long-Term Effects of Serotonergic Psychedelics on Cognition/Creativity, Emotional Processing and Personality'
Introduction
The authors situate the paper within the recent renaissance of psychedelic research and note enduring uncertainties about how serotonergic (classic) psychedelics affect psychological constructs that contribute to a person’s sense of self. They identify three constructs of interest—cognition/creativity, emotional processing and personality—and explain why each matters for mental health: cognitive flexibility and creativity relate to resilience and treatment response, emotional processing biases are implicated in mood and anxiety disorders, and personality traits (Five-Factor Model) are relatively stable but amenable to change after major life events or interventions. The introduction summarises prior heterogeneous and mostly small-scale work suggesting acute or short-term changes on these domains, but emphasises that evidence for lasting (defined here as at least one week) effects is limited and inconsistent. The paper therefore aims to synthesise contemporary randomized and non-randomized controlled studies that report documented doses of serotonergic psychedelics and use standardised measures, in order to estimate the magnitude of lasting effects on cognition/creativity, emotional processing and personality. By restricting to controlled trials and validated outcome measures, the researchers intend to clarify whether there is reliable long-term change following single or short courses of serotonergic psychedelics and to identify gaps for future research.
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Solaja, I., Haldane, K., Mason, N., Weiss, B., Xu, X., Xu, M., Nikolin, S., Jayasena, T., Millard, M., Brett, J., Bayes, A., Loo, C. K., & Martin, D. M. (2024). Who Are You After Psychedelics? A Systematic Review and a Meta-Analysis of the Magnitude of Long-Term Effects of Serotonergic Psychedelics on Cognition/Creativity, Emotional Processing and Personality. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 158, 105570. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2024.105570
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