Meditation trips: A thematic analysis of the combined naturalistic use of psychedelics with meditation practices

Similarities between meditative and psychedelic states have long been recognized. Recently, parallels in the psychological mechanisms mediating the beneficial effects of mindfulness and psychedelic treatments-as well as their potential therapeutic complementarity-have been noted. However, empirical research in this area remains limited. Here, we explore the naturalistic use of meditation practices among psychedelic users recruited outside of treatment/retreat or research settings. Participants with ≥ 1 psychedelic drug experience(s) were included in an online survey. The majority (n = 875; 66.5%) indicated that they engaged in meditation, 39.4% (n = 345) of whom had combined psychedelic use with meditation practices on ≥ 1 occasion. The majority (74.2%; n = 256) provided written accounts describing their experiences of "psychedelic-meditation," which were the basis for the present thematic analytic study. Six overarching themes were identified: (1) Compatibility Between Psychedelic and Meditative States; (2) Enhancement of the Meditative and Psychedelic Experience; (3) Beneficial Changes in Relating to the Internal and External World (encompassing acceptance, connection, peacefulness, and transformation); (4) Negative Effects of Combined Use; (5) Meditation as a Preparatory and Navigational Tool; and (6) Contextual Considerations (including reflections upon, and practical advice about, combining meditation and psychedelics). Participants' experiences appear to support recent empirical and theoretical work on the parallels and complementarity between psychedelic drug effects and meditation. The findings identify facilitating conditions for combining psychedelics with meditation, which may have implications for their combined therapeutic use. For example, the use of meditation techniques might represent a "psychedelic-sparing" strategy, potentially enabling therapeutically important psychedelic effects to emerge at lower doses. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

A systematic review of the pharmacological modulation of autobiographical memory specificity

BACKGROUND: Over-general autobiographical memory (AM) retrieval is proposed to have a causal role in the maintenance of psychological disorders like depression and PTSD. As such, the identification of drugs that modulate AM specificity may open up new avenues of research on pharmacological modeling and treatment of psychological disorders. AIM: The current review summarizes randomized, placebo-controlled studies of acute pharmacological modulation of AM specificity. METHOD: A systematic search was conducted of studies that examined the acute effects of pharmacological interventions on AM specificity in human volunteers (healthy and clinical participants) measured using the Autobiographical Memory Test. RESULTS: Seventeen studies were identified (986 total participants), of which 16 were judged to have low risk of bias. The presence and direction of effects varied across drugs and diagnostic status of participants (clinical vs. healthy volunteers). The most commonly studied drug-hydrocortisone-produced an overall impairment in AM specificity in healthy volunteers [g = -0.28, CI (-0.53, -0.03), p = 0.03], although improvements were reported in two studies of clinical participants. In general, studies of monoamine modulators reported no effect on specificity. CONCLUSION: Pharmacological enhancement of AM specificity is inconsistent, although monaminergic modulators show little promise in this regard. Drugs that reduce AM specificity in healthy volunteers may be useful experimental-pharmacological tools that mimic an important transdiagnostic impairment in psychological disorders. SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION: PROSPERO, identifier CRD42020199076, https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?ID=CRD42020199076

Breastfeeding experience differentially impacts recognition of happiness and anger in mothers

Breastfeeding is a dynamic biological and social process based on hormonal regulation involving oxytocin. While there is much work on the role of breastfeeding in infant development and on the role of oxytocin in socio-emotional functioning in adults, little is known about how breastfeeding impacts emotion perception during motherhood. We therefore examined whether breastfeeding influences emotion recognition in mothers. Using a dynamic emotion recognition task, we found that longer durations of exclusive breastfeeding were associated with faster recognition of happiness, providing evidence for a facilitation of processing positive facial expressions. In addition, we found that greater amounts of breastfed meals per day were associated with slower recognition of anger. Our findings are in line with current views of oxytocin function and support accounts that view maternal behaviour as tuned to prosocial responsiveness, by showing that vital elements of maternal care can facilitate the rapid responding to affiliative stimuli by reducing importance of threatening stimuli

Exploring the phenomenon of intrusive mental imagery after suicide bereavement: A qualitative interview study in a British sample

INTRODUCTION: Each year an estimated 48 million people are bereaved by suicide internationally. Following traumatic events, experiencing intrusive mental imagery relating to the trauma is not uncommon. This phenomenological study aimed to explore the nature, experience and impact of intrusive mental imagery after suicide bereavement. METHODS: Semi-structured interview transcripts with 18 adults bereaved by the suicide of a close contact were analysed using thematic analysis to explore patterns and themes within the data, with particular consideration of the content of images, how people experience and relate to the imagery, and the impact that the imagery has on the bereaved. RESULTS: Thematic analysis identified common characteristics in the experience of intrusive mental imagery following suicide loss, summarised under two main themes capturing: 1) the descriptive characteristics and 2) the emotional experience of intrusive mental imagery following suicide loss. The majority of participants found the experience of intrusive imagery distressing, but most also described positive aspects, including help in making sense of the death and retaining memories of the deceased. CONCLUSION: Findings inform our understanding of the distressing experience of intrusive imagery after suicide loss, also revealing perceived value in processing the death

Accelerated forgetting of a trauma-like event in healthy men and women after a single dose of hydrocortisone

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is characterised by dysregulated hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis activity and altered glucocorticoid receptor sensitivity. Early treatment with glucocorticoids may reduce PTSD risk, although the effect of such treatment on the aetiologically critical step of traumatic-memory-formation remains unclear. Here we examine the effects of exogenous cortisol (hydrocortisone) in a preclinical model of PTSD, using a factorial (Drug × Sex), randomised-controlled, double-blind design. Healthy men and women (n = 120) were randomised to receive 30 mg oral hydrocortisone or matched placebo immediately after watching a stressful film. Effects on film-related intrusions were assessed acutely in the lab, and ecologically using daily memory diaries for one week. We found that participants receiving hydrocortisone showed a faster reduction in daily intrusion frequency. Voluntary memory was assessed once, at the end of the week, but was unaffected by hydrocortisone. Exploratory analyses indicated sex-dependent associations between intrusions and baseline estradiol and progesterone levels. In men receiving hydrocortisone, higher baseline estradiol levels were associated with fewer intrusions, whereas women exhibited the opposite pattern. By contrast, progesterone levels were positively associated with intrusions only in men treated with hydrocortisone. The findings suggest that hydrocortisone promotes an accelerated degradation of sensory-perceptual representations underlying traumatic intrusive memories. In addition, while sex alone was not an important moderator, the combination of sex and sex-hormone levels (especially estradiol) influenced hydrocortisone’s effects on involuntary aversive memories. Future well-powered experimental studies may provide a basis for a precision-psychiatry approach to optimising early post-traumatic glucocorticoid treatments that target intrusive memories, based on individual endocrinological profiles

Cigarette smoking is associated with difficulties in the use of reappraisal for emotion regulation

BACKDGROUND: Negative emotions can promote smoking relapse during a quit attempt. The use of cognitive reappraisal to self-regulate these emotions may therefore aid smoking cessation. Determining whether smokers exhibit difficulties in the use of reappraisal, and which factors are associated with such difficulties, may aid smoking cessations. METHODS: 50 smokers and 50 non-smokers completed an online reappraisal task in which they either reappraised or naturally experienced emotions induced by negatively- and neutrally-valenced images that presented situations in either the 1st-person or 3rd-person perspective. Participants also completed the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS). RESULTS: Compared to non-smokers, smokers were less successful in using reappraisal to self-regulate emotions elicited by negatively-valenced images (but not neutrally-valenced images). Importantly, this effect was only true for images that were presented in the 1st-person (but not 3rd-person) perspective. Contrary to predictions, there were no group differences in DERS scores. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides the first evidence that smokers experience difficulties in the use of reappraisal, particularly in situations that appear to be happening to themselves. Because the use of this regulation technique may help smokers to quit, improving smokers’ abilities to use reappraisal, particularly during negatively-valenced situations that directly influence the smoker, may aid smoking cessation

Post-traumatic Stress Disorder in Victims of Sexual Assault With Pre-assault Substance Consumption: A Systematic Review

Background: Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and substance consumption commonly co-occur in victims of sexual assault. Substance consumption can occur pre- andi/or post-assault. Pre-assault substance consumption may have an impact on the subsequent development of PTSD. This review aims to provide an overview of current understanding of the effects of acute substance intoxication and chronic pre-assault problematic substance use on symptoms of PTSD amongst individuals who were victims of sexual assault.Methods: PsycINFO, EMBASE, and MEDLINE were searched using terms related to PTSD, sexual assault, and substance consumption. These yielded 2,121 articles, 268 of which were retrieved for more detailed evaluation and 13 of these met inclusion criteria and were appraised in full.Results: Overall, the reviewed papers supported our hypothesis that acute substance intoxication and chronic pre-assault problematic substance use are associated with fewer initial PTSD symptoms but less improvement over time, resulting in slower overall PTSD recovery. They also highlighted post-assault characterological self-blame and negative social reactions as mediators of recovery in the context of pre-assault substance consumption.Conclusions: Acute substance intoxication and chronic pre-assault problematic substance use appear to have an impact on the development of PTSD symptoms amongst victims of sexual assault. The importance of developing early interventions and routine screening and assessment for PTSD and pre-assault substance consumption is emphasized. The limited research on male victims and on substances other than alcohol is highlighted

Do mindfulness-based interventions change brain function in people with substance dependence? A systematic review of the fMRI evidence

BACKGROUND: Substance use disorders (SUDs) affect ~ 35 million people globally and are associated with strong cravings, stress, and brain alterations. Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) can mitigate the adverse psychosocial outcomes of SUDs, but the underlying neurobiology is unclear. Emerging findings were systematically synthesised from fMRI studies about MBI-associated changes in brain function in SUDs and their associations with mindfulness, drug quantity, and craving. METHODS: PsycINFO, Medline, CINAHL, PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science were searched. Seven studies met inclusion criteria. RESULTS: Group by time effects indicated that MBIs in SUDs (6 tobacco and 1 opioid) were associated with changes in the function of brain pathways implicated in mindfulness and addiction (e.g., anterior cingulate cortex and striatum), which correlated with greater mindfulness, lower craving and drug quantity. CONCLUSIONS: The evidence for fMRI-related changes with MBI in SUD is currently limited. More fMRI studies are required to identify how MBIs mitigate and facilitate recovery from aberrant brain functioning in SUDs

Development of a digital intervention for psychedelic preparation (DIPP)

Psychedelic substances induce profound alterations in consciousness. Careful preparation is therefore essential to limit adverse reactions, enhance therapeutic benefits, and maintain user safety. This paper describes the development of a self-directed, digital intervention for psychedelic preparation. Drawing on elements from the UK Medical Research Council (MRC) framework for developing complex interventions, the design was informed by a four-factor model of psychedelic preparedness, using a person-centred approach. Our mixed-methods investigation consisted of two studies. The first involved interviews with 19 participants who had previously attended a 'high-dose' psilocybin retreat, systematically exploring their preparation behaviours and perspectives on the proposed intervention. The second study engaged 28 attendees of an ongoing psilocybin retreat in co-design workshops, refining the intervention protocol using insights from the initial interviews. The outcome is a co-produced 21-day digital course (Digital Intervention for Psychedelic Preparation (DIPP)), that is organised into four modules: Knowledge-Expectation, Psychophysical-Readiness, Safety-Planning, and Intention-Preparation. Fundamental components of the course include daily meditation practice, supplementary exercises tied to the weekly modules, and mood tracking. DIPP provides a comprehensive and scalable solution to enhance psychedelic preparedness, aligning with the broader shift towards digital mental health interventions

Assessing the translational feasibility of pharmacological drug memory reconsolidation blockade with memantine in quitting smokers.

RATIONALE: Preclinical reconsolidation research offers the first realistic opportunity to pharmacologically weaken the maladaptive memory structures that support relapse in drug addicts. N-methyl D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) antagonism is a highly effective means of blocking drug memory reconsolidation. However, no research using this approach exists in human addicts. OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to assess the potential and clinical outcomes of blocking the reconsolidation of cue-smoking memories with memantine in quitting smokers. METHODS: Fifty-nine dependent and motivated to quit smokers were randomised to one of three groups receiving the following: (1) memantine with or (2) without reactivation of associative cue-smoking memories or (3) reactivation with placebo on their target quit day in a double-blind manner. Participants aimed to abstain from smoking for as long as possible. Levels of smoking and FTND score were assessed prior to intervention and up to a year later. Primary outcome was latency to relapse. Subjective craving measures and attentional bias to smoking cues were assessed in-lab. RESULTS: All study groups successfully reduced their smoking up to 3 months. Memantine in combination with smoking memory reactivation did not affect any measure of smoking outcome, reactivity or attention capture to smoking cues. CONCLUSIONS: Brief exposure to smoking cues with memantine did not appear to weaken these memory traces. These findings could be due to insufficient reconsolidation blockade by memantine or failure of exposure to smoking stimuli to destabilise smoking memories. Research assessing the treatment potential of reconsolidation blockade in human addicts should focus on identification of tolerable drugs that reliably block reward memory reconsolidation and retrieval procedures that reliably destabilise strongly trained memories