Previously submitted to: Journal of Medical Internet Research (no longer under consideration since Mar 09, 2018)
Date Submitted: Oct 26, 2017
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Higher efficacy ratings for self-medication with psychedelics than offered treatment for psychopathologies
Background:
A substantial number of people worldwide suffer from mental health problems during their lifetime. Current first-line treatments are not efficacious for a considerable number of patients and the need for alternative treatments is high. Recent scientific studies suggest that psychedelic drugs have high therapeutic potential for a variety of difficult to treat mental disorders.
Objective:
To the best of our knowledge the present survey study is the first to assess the tendency of psychedelic users to self-medicate with psychedelics and to compare the efficacy of self-administered psychedelics to treat their disorder, and the treatment offered by a medical professional.
Methods:
In total 2319 (47.4%) participants completed the survey of which 1967 consented and were 18 years or older. The mean (±SD) age of this final set was 25.9 (8.7); 78.7% were males, 19.9% females, and 1.3% classified themselves as ‘other’.
Results:
Almost half of the final set (45.7%) indicated to have suffered or to be currently suffering from a mental disorder; 77.5% of those were diagnosed by a medical professional. In 92.5% of the diagnosed cases some kind of treatment was offered; 77.3% of them searched for treatments outside a medical professional’s recommendation and 15% of those had used or were using psychedelics to treat or cure symptoms. Self-administered psychedelic treatment had a higher likelihood of being efficacious, with higher symptoms reduction and larger quality of life improvement compared to treatment offered by a medical professional.
Conclusions:
Lifetime prevalence of psychopathologies in the current sample of psychedelic drug users seemed to be higher than in the general population. Self-medication with psychedelics was not highly frequent, though when it occurred it was rated as significantly more effective as treatment offered by a medical professional. Current findings support research exploring the potential of psychedelics in the treatment of psychopathologies.
ClinicalTrial:
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Citation
