Pictorial representation of illness and self measure (PRISM): A putative transdiagnostic tool for evaluating therapeutic effects of psychedelic treatments.
Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England) May 1, 2025 Niloufar Pouyan, Jacob S Aday, Steven E Harte et al. 1 citation
People with treatment-resistant conditions often see their illness as part of their identity. The pictorial representation of illness and self measure (PRISM) gauges this self-condition enmeshment. In a survey of 297 individuals who used psychedelics therapeutically on their own, most reported symptom improvement: 95.4% with depression, 98.36% with posttraumatic stress disorder, and 94.87% with anxiety. PRISM scores dropped significantly after the most salient psychedelic experience, indicating reduced identification with the condition. The decrease in PRISM scores correlated with symptom improvement across all conditions. PRISM appears useful for tracking how psychedelics affect self-perception across diagnoses, though limitations include convenience sampling, potential positive bias, and retrospective reporting.