Positive Health Online

Abstract

PALITSKY and COLLEAGUES, (1)Emory Center for Psychedelics and Spirituality, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA; (2)Emory University Spiritual Health, Woodruff Health Sciences Center, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA; (3)Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia, USA; (4)Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Brown University Medical School, Providence, Rhode Island, USA; (5)Contemplative Studies Centre, Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia; (6)Department of Psychology, University of North Texas, Denton, Texas, USA; (7)Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.; (8)Nell Hodgson School of Nursing, Woodruff Health Sciences Center, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA provide an integrative review of extant adverse effects (AE) research in both psychedelics and meditation; an agenda for leveraging meditation research to advance the investigation of psychedelic AEs is recommended

Background

Psychedelics have shown early evidence for a range of benefits and low harm profiles in extant research. However, adverse effects (AEs) research in psychedelics has been limited, leading to underspecified AE profiles, inconsistent measurement, and potential undercounting of AEs.

Methodology

The development of safe, effective psychedelic therapies and treatments for AEs when they occur requires a thorough assessment of psychedelic-related AEs, their phenomenology, risk factors, and longitudinal duration. This article proposes that research on meditation-related AEs, which overlap in important ways with the phenomenological and contextual characteristics of psychedelic-related AEs, has engaged many methodological challenges present in the study of psychedelic-related AEs. Thus, meditation-related AE research offers thematic and methodological insights that are valuable to psychedelic AE research.

Results

An integrative review of extant AE research in both psychedelics and meditation is provided, and an agenda for leveraging meditation research to advance the investigation of psychedelic AEs is recommended.

Conclusion

This includes the utility of meditation-related AEs as a comparator condition for psychedelic-related AEs, as well as recommendations for the adoption of (1) detailed and comprehensive, (2)  user-informed, (3) impact-based, (4) standardized, (5) unbiased, and (6)  representative measures of AEs and (7) examining factors that influence their  impacts and trajectories.

References

Palitsky R(1)(2)(3), Canby NK(4), Van Dam NT(5), Levin-Aspenson HF(6), Kaplan

DM(1)(2)(7), Maples-Keller J(3), Raison CL(1)(2), Grant GH(1)(2)(8), Dunlop

BW(1)(3), Britton WB(4). Leveraging meditation research for the study of psychedelic-related adverse effects. Int Rev Psychiatry;36(8): 841-855. doi: 10.1080/09540261.2024.2420745.  Epub Nov 13 2024 .  Dec 2024