Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States of America.
2 papers in the library · 220 citations · publishing 2022-2024
This critical review examines multiple levels of mechanisms behind psychedelics' effects and therapeutic potential. At the biochemical level, they primarily act on 5-HT2A receptors, increase neuroplasticity, open a critical period for social reward learning, and have anti-inflammatory properties. At the neural level, they reduce thalamo-cortical filtering efficacy, loosen top-down predictive signaling, increase sensitivity to bottom-up prediction errors, and activate the claustro-cortical circuit. At the psychological level, they induce altered and affective states, affect cognition, change beliefs, exert social effects, and produce lasting behavioral changes. The authors contrast a potential unifying account with pluralistic causation and propose a research agenda for better understanding causal-mechanistic pathways to enable targeted therapies.
A short-form version of the AWE-S (AWE-SF) was developed and validated within psychedelic samples to measure awe while reducing participant burden. Across five studies, the original six-factor structure was replicated, and the 12-item AWE-SF showed strong associations with positive emotions and openness to experience. It effectively predicted both mystical-type and challenging psychedelic experiences, as well as long-term well-being outcomes like life satisfaction and psychological richness. Connection and vastness facets were linked to positive emotional states and mystical-type experience, while accommodation and self-loss were linked to negative emotional states and challenging psychedelic experience. The AWE-SF is a robust and reliable tool for measuring awe.