Who are you after psychedelics? A systematic review and a meta-analysis of the magnitude of long-term effects of serotonergic psychedelics on cognition/creativity, emotional processing and personality

Ivana Solaja; Kate Haldane; Natasha Mason; Brandon Weiss; Xiaomin Xu; Mei Xu; Stevan Nikolin; Tharusha Jayasena; Michael Millard; Jonathan Brett; Adam Bayes; Colleen K Loo; Donel M Martin

doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2024.105570

Who are you after psychedelics? A systematic review and a meta-analysis of the magnitude of long-term effects of serotonergic psychedelics on cognition/creativity, emotional processing and personality

Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2024 Mar:158:105570. doi: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2024.105570. Epub 2024 Feb 3.

Authors

Ivana Solaja¹, Kate Haldane², Natasha Mason³, Brandon Weiss⁴, Xiaomin Xu⁵, Mei Xu⁵, Stevan Nikolin⁶, Tharusha Jayasena⁵, Michael Millard⁷, Jonathan Brett⁷, Adam Bayes⁶, Colleen K Loo⁶, Donel M Martin⁶

Affiliations

¹ School of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. Electronic address: i.solaja@unsw.edu.au.
² Black Dog Institute, Sydney, Australia.
³ Department of Neuropsychology and Psychopharmacology, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Maastricht, Netherlands.
⁴ Centre for Psychedelic Research, Division of Academic Psychiatry, Imperial College London, London, UK.
⁵ School of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.
⁶ School of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia; Black Dog Institute, Sydney, Australia.
⁷ St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney, Australia.

PMID: 38311046
DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2024.105570

Abstract

This systematic review and a meta-analysis synthesised the results from contemporary, randomized and non-randomized controlled studies to assess lasting (one week minimum) changes on cognition/creativity, emotional processing and personality from serotonergic psychedelics. PubMed, Embase and PsycInfo were searched in July 2022. Risk of bias was assessed using Rob 2.0 and ROBINS-I. Ten studies met the eligibility criteria which involved 304 participants. No statistically significant effects were found for the majority outcome measures across the three constructs. A meta-analysis of emotional recognition outcomes found an overall significant effect for faster reaction times in the active treatment groups for disgust (SMD=-0.63, 95% CI=[-1.01 to -0.25], I2 = 65%) and sadness (SMD=-0.45, 95% CI=[-0.85 to -0.06], I2 = 60%). Future research should include larger samples, better control conditions, standardized doses and longer follow-up periods to confirm these preliminary findings.

Keywords: Cognition; Creativity; Emotional processing; Meta-analysis; Personality; Psychedelics; Systematic review.

Publication types

Systematic Review
Meta-Analysis
Review

MeSH terms

Cognition
Emotions
Hallucinogens*
Humans
Personality

Substances

Hallucinogens