Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Berlin Institute of Health, Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
2 papers in the library · 5 citations · publishing 2024-2025
A new questionnaire called the Afterglow Inventory (AGI) reliably measures pleasant psychological effects that can occur days after a psychedelic experience, such as with psilocybin or LSD. The AGI captures five distinct dimensions: vitality, transpersonal aspects, inspiration/creativity, interpersonal relationships, and relationship to nature. In an international online survey of 1,323 people who had recently used a psychedelic and 157 controls, the AGI successfully distinguished between the two groups. Stronger and more positive acute psychedelic experiences were associated with higher afterglow scores. This tool may help researchers understand how short-term afterglow effects connect to longer-term therapeutic outcomes.
A new questionnaire called the Afterglow Inventory (AGI) was developed and validated to measure the pleasant, temporary psychological effects that sometimes follow the acute phase of a psychedelic experience. An international online survey of 1,323 people who had taken a psychedelic and 157 who had taken a non-psychedelic substance in the past four weeks identified five key factors: vitality, transpersonal aspects, inspiration/creativity, interpersonal relationships, and relationship to nature. The 24-item AGI successfully distinguished psychedelic users from controls, and its overall score was positively correlated with the intensity and positive valence of the acute effects. The AGI may help researchers better understand how acute, subacute, and long-term effects of psychedelics relate to each other.