A quantitative exploration of the relationships between regular yoga practice, microdosing psychedelics, wellbeing and personality variables

This exploratory cross-sectional survey study (n=339) investigated differences in mood and wellbeing between samples of people who either microdose, practice yoga, or engage in neither, in light of personality trait differences in openness, neuroticism, and absorption. Microdosing and yoga practices exhibited complementary effects, as participants who practiced both had the highest absorption score, exhibited higher levels of wellbeing, and had less depression and anxiety, compared to people who either practiced yoga or microdosing, and participants recruited as controls. However, participants were recruited from different population samples, which may bias self-report, and lead to significant differences in age, gender, employment, and education between the conditions.

Abstract

“Objective: The current study aimed to explore whether the subjective effects of microdosing psychedelics are comparable to those of yoga in relation to psychological wellbeing, depression, anxiety and stress. It also explored the relationship between yoga, microdosing and personality.

Method: The sample comprised 339 participants, yoga (n = 131), microdose (n = 69), microdose and yoga (n = 54) and control (n = 85). All completed measures of personality (M5-50 and Tellegen Absorption Scale), mood (Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale-21) and wellbeing (Ryff Scales of Psychological Wellbeing).

Results: The yoga and microdosing groups scored significantly higher on psychological wellbeing and absorption than the control. The microdosing and yoga group had lower depression scores than the microdose only group, and lower anxiety scores than the yoga only group. Furthermore, the microdosing and yoga group had the highest absorption score. Openness was significantly lower in the control group than in all other groups.

Conclusions: While we cannot infer that yoga and microdosing lead to increased wellbeing, openness and absorption, or to decreased depression and anxiety, the findings suggest that the subjective effects of microdosing psychedelics are comparable to those of yoga and that the combination of both might be beneficial.”

Authors: Stephen Bright, Emily Blatchford & Eyal Gringart

Summary

Abstract

A study of 339 participants found that those who practiced yoga and took microdoses of psychedelics had higher psychological wellbeing, lower depression, anxiety and stress scores, and higher absorption scores than those who practiced yoga and did not take microdoses.

What is already known about this topic

Previous research has found that yoga improves psychological wellbeing, decreases depressive and anxiety symptoms, decreases neuroticism, and increases openness and absorption. Recent research has also found that microdosing psychedelic substances improves psychological wellbeing.

What this topic adds

Researchers found that the effects of microdosing psychedelic substances on wellbeing and personality are comparable to those of yoga.

Yoga incorporates physical and mental practices with the aim of achieving self-realisation or union between body, mind and spirit. It has been related to improved physical and psychological health in a range of populations, including decreased depressive and anxiety symptoms. Participants in a study who microdosed reported improved mood and anxiety, and 63 people who self-reported microdosing reported decreased depressive and stress symptoms after 6 weeks. Anderson et al. (2019) found that microdosers had lower scores on measures of dysfunctional attitudes and negative emotionality than non-microdosers.

There have been two clinical trials of microdosing LSD, in which 20 healthy adults were randomly administered 6.5, 13, or 26 g of LSD, and 48 healthy older adults were administered 5, 10, or 20 g of LSD and completed a cognitive task three hours after administration. When high doses of psilocybin (30 mg/70 kg) are administered, significant increases in openness are observed, which are sustained at a 16-month follow-up. However, microdosing does not appear to change openness, but rather increases neuroticism. Yoga practice has been consistently related with increased openness and decreased neuroticism. For example, people who had practised yoga for 10 years or longer had lower levels of neuroticism compared with people who had practiced less than two years. Both microdosing and yoga practice have been associated with increased levels of absorption, which may explain why people are able to enter altered states of consciousness more easily. This study explored the relationship between microdosing and wellbeing and personality by exploring whether there were differences in wellbeing, depression, anxiety and stress, openness, neuroticism and absorption between people who microdose, practise yoga or do neither.

Research design

The current study employed a quasi-experimental survey design and included four conditions: microdosing, yoga, and neither (control). Measures of wellbeing, mood, and personality were collected via Ryff Scales, DASS-21, M5-50, and Tellegen Absorption Scale.

Participants

Participants were recruited via advertisements on websites, social media and mailing lists of organisations dedicated to psychedelics or yoga. Control participants were recruited via Turk Prime Panels.

Ryff Scales of Psychological Wellbeing

The Ryff Scales of Psychological Wellbeing was used to measure wellbeing. It consists of six subscales with seven items in each, and is administered using a 6-point (1-6) Likert type scale.

The DASS-21 measures depression, anxiety and stress and has a reliability of .94, .87 and .91, respectively.

The M5-50 measures openness and neuroticism using two subscales. The subscales have good internal consistency and good construct validity, and have moderate to strong correlations with the NEO-Personality Inventory-3.

After receiving ethics approval from the university, participants were directed to a Qualtrics page containing information about the study. They completed a psychometric measure of wellbeing, mood, personality and drug use before being excluded from the study.

Analysis

The data from Qualtrics was exported to SPSS where a MANOVA was conducted using the Ryff Scales of Psychological Wellbeing and the DASS-21 as dependent variables. Separate ANOVAs were conducted using the M5-50 and Tellegen Absorption Scale.

Participants were included if their ASSIST scores indicated their substance use was harmful. Seventy-two participants did not complete all measures, and 18 were excluded due to being identified as multivariate outliers.

A MANOVA was performed using Ryff Scales of Psychological Wellbeing to compare the effects of yoga, microdose and mindfulness on personal growth and self-acceptance. The yoga group had significantly higher scores than the microdose group and the control group.

The control group had lower overall psychological wellbeing scores than the yoga group and the microdose group.

A second MANOVA was conducted using the DASS-21 to explore whether there were group differences in depression, anxiety or stress. The results showed that the yoga group scored significantly higher in anxiety than the microdose group.

ANOVA revealed a significant main effect for openness, with an effect size of .17. Tukey’s post-hoc procedure revealed the control group had the lowest mean openness scores. An ANOVA was conducted to assess whether there were group differences in neuroticism. The results showed that the control group had significantly lower absorption scores than the microdose group, the yoga group and the MY group. In this study, people who practiced both yoga and microdosing reported better overall wellbeing compared to those who practised neither. The yoga group scored significantly higher in two of the four measured components of wellbeing, personal growth and self-acceptance, than the control group. To our knowledge, we were among the first researchers to generate empirical evidence that suggests microdosing might improve wellbeing. However, our findings were not consistent with previous studies that found yoga to reduce anxiety and depression, and self-reported microdosing to decrease depressive symptoms. Previous research found that people who microdosed were more open-minded than people who did not, and that yoga was significantly related to increased openness. We did not find any differences in neuroticism between people who microdosed, practised yoga or did neither. The combination of microdosing and yoga increased psychological wellbeing more than psilocybin alone, and the combination of microdosing and yoga had the highest absorption score. The context of microdosing might contribute significantly to microdosing effects. However, our cross-sectional study presents some limitations and we cannot conclude that yoga and microdosing leads to increased wellbeing, openness and absorption.

13 confounded our findings, and we cannot know the precise dosages taken or whether all reported psychedelics consumed were psychedelics. Participants who scored high on the ASSIST were excluded from the study, and this may have impacted their results. Our study indicates that both yoga and microdosing may be effective strategies for improving wellbeing. Yoga and microdosing appear to have a strong relationship with levels of absorption, and may be useful for improving the efficacy of mind-body interventions. Future research could explore why microdosing was significantly related to some aspects of wellbeing and not others, and could also investigate the influence of combined microdosing and yoga on attention, mindfulness and sense of agency.

Participants who engaged in yoga and microdosing had higher mean wellbeing scores compared to controls, and had a complementary effect concerning depression, anxiety and absorption.