Motives for the use of serotonergic psychedelics: A systematic review.
Lukas A Basedow, Sören Kuitunen-paul
Drug and alcohol review September 1, 2022 Peer reviewed DOI: 10.1111/dar.13480 via PubMed
Summary
The most common motive for using serotonergic psychedelics (SP) is the desire to expand awareness, reported in 78% of studies. Other motives include coping (67%) and enhancement (57%). The review analyzed 37 peer-reviewed articles on SP use motives across various cultures and found no significant associations between motives and factors like report type or participant population. To reduce SP-related harms, harm-reduction services should offer non-drug alternatives for fulfilling the expansion motive.
Study at a glance
| Design | systematic review |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 37 |
| Population | studies on serotonergic psychedelics across different cultural backgrounds |
| Key finding | The desire to expand awareness is the most common motive for serotonergic psychedelic use, noted in 78% of included studies. |
Abstract
Serotonergic psychedelics (SP) are psychoactive substances that produce unique sets of subjective effects, such as hallucinatory experiences. This systematic review is the first to summarise which motives for SP use have been assessed in medical, psychological, sociological and ethnological research across different types of SPs and across cultural backgrounds. Findings on use motives can be especially important in the context of harm reduction. We searched academic databases (Medline, Web of Science and Embase) and included publications if they were peer-reviewed and written in English, German, Spanish or Dutch. We analysed which type of motives were reported, comparing motives from quantitative and qualitative reports, and investigating associations between motives and year of publication, specific SPs and specific participant populations. Our search in November 2020 resulted in 30,257 unique articles of which 37 were included in the analysis. Across all studies, the most common motive for SP use was the desire to expand awareness (78% of included studies), followed by coping (67%) and enhancement (57%) motives. There were no statistically significant associations between reported motive and type of report (quantitative vs. qualitative), year of publication (range: 1967-2020), type of SP and participant population. If SP-related harms are to be reduced, harm-reduction services could focus on providing non-pharmacological ways of fulfilling an expansion motive. Additionally, future studies should aim to assess specific motives for specific SPs. SPs are most commonly used to expand (self-)knowledge, promote spiritual development or for curiosity, notably across different SP user populations including patients.