Psilocybin and Depression: Past Psilocybin Use Improving Future Depressive Symptom Management

Date

2021

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Abstract

In this study, I investigated whether individuals who have taken psilocybin in the past felt that their experience(s) helped them prevent or cope with depressive symptoms. This study was based on past research showing psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy’s efficacy in treating depression. Three hundred seventy participants responded to the Survey on Psilocybin Use and Depressive Symptoms (SPUDS, created for this study) and Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9). The data was analyzed to determine associations between demographics, as well as correlations between how many times they ingested psilocybin, how much it helped, and their total depression scores. Data were also analyzed to determine any trends in the data from open-ended questions. While no associations with demographics were found with the amount of psilocybin ingested, how much psilocybin helped, or their total depression scores, there were weak but statistically significant correlations between age and how much they believe psilocybin helped, and how many times someone took psilocybin and how much they believed it helped. There were also several trends found in the open-ended responses, including what aspects of themselves psilocybin changed, or what dosages they preferred for the biggest changes. There was a skewness of the PHQ-9 scores, where more participants had more severe current depressive scores so that possibly affected the correlation strength between psilocybin ingestion and depression severity. I recommend more research be done on participants’ past psilocybin experiences and their intentions, as well as more research focusing on why the most reported aspects of the psilocybin experience are both most common and if they correlate with changes found in the brain/behavior from other studies.

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Keywords

Psilocybin, Depression, Psychedelics, Psychedelic research, Depressive symptoms, Psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy, Psychedelic therapy

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