The journal Nature published a new research analysis from Imperial College London (ICL)’s Center for Psychedelic Research and University of California San Francisco (UCSF)’s Psychedelics Division, including renowned David Erritzoe and Robin Carhart-Harris. The study looks at cases where there have been long-term negative psychological responses to psychedelics.
The study was motivated by an alleged ongoing research and reporting bias on positive over negative outcomes with these compounds. Also, they say, “unpleasant acute psychological experiences under psychedelics are not rare—even in research environments” with one study reporting around 40% prevalence of moderate to severe anxiety, panic or distress with high-dose psilocybin in healthy volunteers.
It is unclear, they say, how these “bad trips” or “challenging experiences” relate to long-term psychological outcomes.
The study’s focus was set exclusively on negative results “defined as self-perceived ‘negative’ psychological responses lasting for at least 72 hours …
