Examining Psychedelic-Induced Changes in Social Functioning and Connectedness in a Naturalistic Online Sample Using the Five-Factor Model of Personality

Abstract

The present study examines prospective changes in personality traits relevant to social functioning as well as perceived social connectedness in relation to the naturalistic use of psychedelic compounds in an online volunteer sample. The study also examined the degree to which demographic characteristics, social setting, baseline personality, and acute subjective factors (e.g., emotional breakthrough experiences) influenced trajectories of personality and perceived social connectedness. Participants recruited online completed self-report measures of personality and social connectedness at three timepoints (baseline, 2weeks post-experience, 4weeks post-experience). Linear mixed models were used to examine changes in outcomes and the moderation of these outcomes by covariates. The most substantive changes were reductions in the personality domains Neuroticism, and increases in Agreeableness and social connectedness. Notably, reductions in Neuroticism and increases in Agreeableness covaried over time, which may be suggestive of common processes involving emotion regulation. Preliminary evidence was found for a specific effect on a component of Agreeableness involving a critical and quarrelsome interpersonal style. Although moderation by demographic characteristics, social setting, baseline personality, and acute factors generally found limited support, baseline standing on Neuroticism, perspective taking, and social connectedness showed tentative signs of amplifying adaptive effects on each trait, respectively. Our findings hold implications for the potential use of psychedelics for treating interpersonal elements of personality pathology as well as loneliness.

Decreases in State and Trait Anxiety Post-psilocybin: A Naturalistic, Observational Study Among Retreat Attendees

“…Findings from the current and previous studies suggest that a psychedelic-assisted intervention can reduce levels of neuroticism, which are related to reductions in anxiety ratings in our study, and could be related to reductions of symptoms of comorbid conditions such as depression or post-traumatic stress disorder as seen in other studies. We also found post-retreat increases in trait agreeableness, which is in line with a previous naturalistic work done by Weiss et al ( 41 ). Other studies have shown either no changes in agreeableness post-psilocybin experience in depressed patients ( 37 ) or higher agreeableness scores among psychedelics users when compared to the general population ( 38 ).…”

“…As such, it has been suggested that reducing neuroticism should be the primary focus of therapeutic interventions when treating psychopathologies such as anxiety (33). It has been repeatedly found that ingestion of a psychedelic drug can induce rapid and persisting changes in personality traits, and particularly reductions in neuroticism, in both healthy and clinical populations (24,(35)(36)(37)(38)(39)(40)(41). Thus, given the reduction in self-rated neuroticism found after ingestion of a psychedelic, it could be suggested that one mechanism by which psychedelic substances induce persisting changes in anxiety levels could be by altering maladaptive personality structures which exacerbate anxiety.…”

Predictors Of Hallucinogen Persisting Perception Disorder Symptoms, Delusional Ideation And Magical Thinking Following Naturalistic Psychedelic Use

“…Not including adverse reactions driven more distinctly by external factors, such as harm due to accidents, abuse, or coercion by others, the most salient concerns regarding the intrinsic side effect profile of psychedelic drugs recently reviewed by Schlag et al (Schlag et al, 2022) refer to their potential to 1) trigger psychotic episodes (Smart et al, 1966;Metzner, 1969;Huang & Bai, 2011;Hodge et al, 2022), or more subtly, enhance schizotypal tendencies in healthy individuals (Lebedev et al, 2021;Weiss et al, 2021;Forstmann et al, 2020;Kettner et al, 2021), and 2) to induce enduring visuoperceptual aberrations, that, when distressing, are clinically recognised as hallucinogen persisting perception disorder (HPPD) (Halpern & Pope, 2003;Schlag et al, 2022;Cerón Tapia et al, 2021;Singh et al, n.d.;Nutting et al, 2021)). The latter has been identified in the literature as early as 1960 (COHEN, 1960) and is nowadays considered to include two sub-types.…”

Psychedelics and neonihilism: connectedness in a meaningless world

“…A variety of naturalistic studies found increases in self-reported connectedness related to the use of psychedelics ( Forstmann et al, 2020 ; Weiss et al, 2021 ; Petranker et al, 2022 ), and connectedness is canonically related to well-being, especially in the context of psychedelics ( Watts et al, 2017 ). The precise definition of connectedness and its relationship to meaning remains elusive, however, Forstmann et al (2020) examined the “Inclusion of Self in Others” ( Aron et al, 1991 ), in which participants select how much their sense of “self” overlaps with another.…”