Psychedelia, attachment and wellbeing - a naturalistic longitudinal study following participants of psychedelic retreats
Abstract
Interest in psychedelics, both as a treatment for different psychiatric conditions and as instrument for self-growth, has increased enormously during the past decade (Nutt & Carhart-Harris, 2021). Psychedelics, at least when embedded in a therapeutic setting, have shown promising results for a number of outcomes related to wellbeing (Aday et al., 2020). As the research field is just takings its first steps little knowledge exists on the mechanisms behind the possible positive effects, as well as what conditions may support these effects. In the present project we will target specifically how participation in a psychedelic retreat program affects relational functioning in terms of attachment orientations and wellbeing. We will also study how emotion regulation and defense mechanisms may affect psychedelic retreat effects on wellbeing as well as how different experiences during the retreat may affect outcomes. Participants in the retreat program will fill out an internet based survey before participation and on seven different occasions up until 12 months after the retreat. The retreat program is arranged by the Swedish organization Nysnö and the actual retreats take place in the Netherlands. The program stretches over 4 weeks including a retreat of four days where the participants ingest the psychoactive compound psilocybin in form of mushroom truffles on two occasions. During the two weeks prior the retreat the participants meet twice to foster trust in the group and set intentions for the retreat, and during the two weeks after the participants similarly meet twice for integration of their experiences from the retreat. Nysnö organizes 15-20 retreats yearly and each retreat consists of 10-20 healthy individuals who partake with different intentions circling around increased self-knowledge or personal growth. All individuals are screened beforehand for mental and physical problems that may be dangerous when combined with psychedelics. Upon acceptance for the retreat the participants are asked if they want to participate in the present study. Whether the participants join the study or not does not affect their participation in the retreat program. Registration for the study is done through the online platform psychedelicsurvey.com, which sends out an individual link to the different surveys. All information collected through the surveys are anonymous, and as such no ethical approval is needed according to Swedish legislation (EPN, dnr 2022-03652-01). The Helsinki declaration as well as more local ethical guidelines of Stockholm university are followed. The study consists of seven different data collection timepoints from pre-retreat until 12 months after the retreat. At each time-point, a survey is answered. The first survey, T1, is sent out two weeks before the retreat, the second, T2, 48 hours before the retreat, the third, T3, 24 hours after the retreat, the fourth, T4, two weeks after, and the fifth, T5, sixth, T6, and seventh, T7, are sent out three, six and twelve months post retreat. See below for description of the content of the questionnaires included in the surveys. All surveys are answered online. Data collection started in the autumn of 2022 and is planned to continue for two and half years.
Topics & conditions
Detected automatically by Psychedelic Commons from the title and abstract, not labels from the source. They may be incomplete.
Psychedelic Commons aggregates metadata from open sources and links back to the original. Rights remain with the authors and publishers. Something wrong with this record? Report a problem.