Psychedelic use and intimate partner violence

This survey (n=1266) examines the correlation between lifetime psychedelic use of LSD and/or psilocybin and intimate partner violence in a community sample of men and women using an online questionnaire. Contrary to the generally held belief, the study found that men using LSD and/or psilocybin had reduced odds of physical violence against their current partner and that also reported better emotion regulation as compared to males with no history of psychedelic use. The study underlined the potential of emotion regulation in this dynamic.

Abstract

Background: Recent evidence suggests that psychedelic use predicts reduced perpetration of intimate partner violence among men involved in the criminal justice system. However, the extent to which this association generalizes to community samples has not been examined, and potential mechanisms underlying this association have not been directly explored.

Aims: The present study examined the association between lifetime psychedelic use and intimate partner violence among a community sample of men and women. The study also tested the extent to which the associations were mediated by improved emotion regulation.

Methods: We surveyed 1266 community members aged 16–70 (mean age=22.78, standard deviation=7.71) using an online questionnaire that queried substance use, emotional regulation, and intimate partner violence. Respondents were coded as psychedelic users if they reported one or more instance of using lysergic acid diethylamide and/or psilocybin mushrooms in their lifetime.

Results/outcomes: Males reporting any experience using lysergic acid diethylamide and/or psilocybin mushrooms had decreased odds of perpetrating physical violence against their current partner (odds ratio=0.42, p<0.05). Furthermore, our analyses revealed that male psychedelic users reported better emotion regulation when compared to males with no history of psychedelic use. Better emotion regulation mediated the relationship between psychedelic use and lower perpetration of intimate partner violence. This relationship did not extend to females within our sample.

Conclusions/interpretation: These findings extend prior research showing a negative relationship between psychedelic use and intimate partner violence, and highlight the potential role of emotion regulation in this association.

Authors: Michelle S. Thiessen, Zach Walsh, Brian M. Bird & Adele Lafrance

Summary

Introduction

The association between substance use and violence has been extensively investigated. Evidence suggests that alcohol, methamphetamine, cocaine, and the dissociative anesthetic phencyclidine (PCP) are associated with aggression, while the relationship between use of other psychoactive substances and violence remains somewhat obscure.

Psychedelics include lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), psilocybin mushrooms (“magic mushrooms”), mescaline, and dimethyltryptamine (DMT), which have different mechanisms of action. They can induce altered perception of time and space, visual distortions, a feeling of interconnectivity and oneness, and affective introspection.

Recent evidence suggests that psychedelic use reduces intimate partner violence.

The extent to which this association generalizes has not been examined.

A study of 1266 community members found that lifetime psychedelic use was associated with intimate partner violence. The association was also mediated by improved emotion regulation.

Results: Males reporting any experience using psilocybin mushrooms had decreased odds of perpetrating.

Male psychedelic users reported better emotion regulation when compared to males with no history of psychedelic use, and this relationship mediated the relationship between psychedelic use and lower perpetration of intimate partner violence.

Psychedelic plants have been used for therapeutic purposes for millennia, and have been introduced into Western medicine within the last few decades. Studies have shown promising findings for the therapeutic use of psychedelics to treat mental health conditions, and have also shown inverse relationships between psychedelic use and criminality.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is physical, sexual, or psychological abuse by an intimate partner. Substance use is an important predictor of IPV, but the association varies across classes of drugs.

Negative emotionality is a frequently cited precursor to perpetration of IPV, and effective emotion regulation has been found to facilitate positive coping with conflict among partners. Psilocybin has been shown to enhance emotional empathy, attenuate reactivity in brain regions implicated in emotion processing, and decrease threat sensitivity.

The current investigation evaluated the relationship between use of LSD and/or psilocybin mushrooms and perpetration of intimate partner violence. It hypothesized that better emotion regulation may be a potential mechanism underlying the protective effects of psychedelic use for IPV.

Participants

Participants were recruited from The University of British Columbia, Laurentian University, Reddit, and Amazon’s Mechanical Turk to complete an anonymous online survey. They received course credit, gift cards, or $3.00 compensation.

Psychedelic use

Participants were rated on a five-point Likert-type scale for their lifetime use of LSD and psilocybin mushrooms.

Emotion regulation

The Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale measures multiple aspects of emotion regulation, including awareness, clarity, acceptance, non-acceptance, strategies, ability to engage in goal-directed activities during negative emotions, and impulse management.

IPV was measured using the revised short-form Conflicts Tactics Scale, and those that reported one or more instances in the past year were coded as perpetrators of IPV.

Alcohol use

A 10-item measure was used to assess problematic alcohol use, and screen for alcohol misuse and dependence. Higher scores indicated more problematic alcohol use.

Analytic plan

Bivariate analyses were performed using chi-square, Pearson and point-biserial correlation analyses, binary logistic regression, mediation analyses, and bootstrapped tests were used to determine the relationship between psychedelic use and partner violence.

Results

Chi-square tests revealed no differences in psychedelic use or IPV between the two university samples and the two online forum samples. The four samples were collapsed into two, a university sample and an online sample.

The total sample consisted of 1266 participants, 61.77% of whom were female, who responded to questions about psychedelic use and IPV. The participants were predominantly Caucasian, followed by Asian, Black, and Indigenous respondents.

Past year IPV perpetration was reported by 11.10% of participants. Alcohol use and psychedelic use were associated with higher levels of IPV across gender.

Psychedelic use was inversely related to partner violence after controlling for alcohol use, and a lifetime history of psychedelic use was inversely related to IPV perpetration in males, but not females. Emotion regulation mediated the association between psychedelic use and IPV.

Discussion

We found that men with a history of psychedelic use were less likely to perpetrate physical violence against an intimate partner than men without a history of psychedelic use.

The negative association between psychedelic use and IPV was identified in men but not in women, which is consistent with prior research. The rates of self-reported IPV among women are also consistent with previous partner violence research.

Emotion regulation partially mediated the relationship between psychedelic use and intimate partner violence perpetration, and this finding adds to the growing body of evidence that suggests that enhanced emotion regulation may underlie the diverse psycho-behavioral benefits associated with psychedelic use.

We found that females had worse emotion regulation after alcohol use, but not after psychedelic use. These findings suggest that future research should incorporate gender in design and analysis.

The relationship between problematic alcohol use and IPV perpetration is consistent with prior research, and controlling for alcohol use helped avoid misattributing an increase in violence to psychedelic use.

Our study has several limitations, such as a cross-sectional design that does not allow us to establish a causal relationship, and self-reports of substance use and violence that may have reduced the accuracy of responses.

This study provides preliminary evidence of an inverse relationship between psychedelic use and violence among males. The findings were consistent across four community samples, increasing our confidence in the validity of these findings.

Study details

Compounds studied
LSD Psilocybin

Topics studied
Safety

Study characteristics
Survey

Participants
1266

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