This secondary analysis from a DMT study explores the impact of intentional cognitive interruptions on psychedelic experiences. The study investigates whether increasing cognitive load during the experience affects subjective ratings, hypothesizing that higher task demands would lower these ratings. Additionally, it examines whether reduced task demands correlate with larger reductions in long-term depressive symptoms.
Abstract of Interrupting the Psychedelic Experience Through Contextual Manipulation to Study Experience Efficacy
“Under the psychedelic therapy paradigm, instead of looking at drug efficacy, researchers look at experience efficacy, defined as how certain experiences can be therapeutic. To test experience efficacy, researchers need to develop new research tools to manipulate the experience without changing the pharmacology. We suggest that intentional cognitive interruptions can help inquire into experience efficacy by experimentally interfering with the experience. To strengthen this suggestion, we present a secondary analysis from our 2023 N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) study, investigating whether it is possible to interrupt the psychedelic experience by increasing cognitive load and whether an interrupted experience is associated with reduced long-term mental health changes. We hypothesized that subjective ratings of the psychedelic experience would be lower when task demands were higher and reductions in long-term depressive symptoms would be larger with fewer task demands during the experience.”
Authors: Leor Roseman, David Erritzoe, David J. Nutt, Robin L. Carhart-Harris & Christopher Timmermann
Summary of Interrupting the Psychedelic Experience Through Contextual Manipulation to Study Experience Efficacy
Researchers are looking at experience efficacy instead of drug efficacy when investigating psychedelic therapy. In order to test experience efficacy, researchers need to develop new research tools to manipulate the experience without changing the pharmacology.
Methods
Participants provided informed consent, underwent 2 separate intravenous DMT or placebo administrations, and were scanned with combined functional magnetic resonance imaging and electroencephalography. Subjective ratings of the experience were measured retrospectively using the 11 Dimensions Altered States of Consciousness questionnaire3.
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Interrupting the Psychedelic Experience Through Contextual Manipulation to Study Experience Efficacy
https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.22181
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Cite this paper (APA)
Roseman, L., Erritzoe, D., Nutt, D., Carhart-Harris, R., & Timmermann, C. (2024). Interrupting the Psychedelic Experience Through Contextual Manipulation to Study Experience Efficacy. JAMA Network Open, 7(7), e2422181. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.22181
Study details
Compounds studied
DMT
Topics studied
Anxiety
Depression
Safety
Treatment-Resistant Depression
Study characteristics
Original Re-analysis
Placebo-Controlled
Single-Blind
Randomized
Participants
20
Humans
Compound Details
The psychedelics given at which dose and how many times
DMT 20 mg | 1xLinked Research Papers
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