Skip to content

Darko Hren

Department of Psychology, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Split, Split, Croatia.

3 papers in the library · 46 citations · publishing 2022-2024

Papers

Validation of a new instrument for assessing attitudes on psychedelics in the general population

Scientific Reports October 29, 2022 Marija Franka Žuljević, Ivan Buljan, Mia Leskur et al. 34 citations

A new 20-item questionnaire, the Attitudes on Psychedelics Questionnaire (APQ), was developed and tested in a Croatian general population sample of 1153 participants. The APQ has four sub-scales: Legal Use, Effects, Risk Assessment, and Openness to Psychedelics. It showed excellent reliability and strong correlations with a similar unvalidated measure, supporting its validity. Younger age, male gender, and lower educational status were associated with more positive attitudes. People who knew more about psychedelics also held more favorable attitudes. The APQ can be used to assess educational interventions, patient outcomes, and expert attitudes, but further validation in English is needed.

Attitudes of European psychiatrists on psychedelics: a qualitative study.

Frontiers in psychiatry January 1, 2024 Marija Franka Žuljević, Nando Breški, Mariano Kaliterna et al. 6 citations

Psychiatrists in Europe who are not involved in psychedelic research see both promise and risk in psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy (PAP). Based on interviews with 12 specialists and trainees from 8 countries, four themes emerged: psychedelics hold potential, they are dangerous, their future is uncertain, and psychiatry is ambivalent toward them. Respondents acknowledged PAP's potential but considered its evidence base not yet robust enough. They reported that education on psychedelics is lacking in medical and psychiatric training and should be improved to help mental health experts participate in decisions about PAP.

Mystical and Affective Aspects of Psychedelic Use in a Naturalistic Setting: A Linguistic Analysis of Online Experience Reports

Journal of Psychoactive Drugs November 3, 2023 Marija Franka Žuljević, Antonija Mijatović, Stjepan Ljudevit Marušić et al. 6 citations

Analysis of 7317 online psychedelic experience reports, mostly about psilocybin, shows that the use of mystical language increases with the self-reported intensity of the experience. At the same time, negative sentiment rises and positive sentiment falls as intensity increases. These results suggest that mystical experiences may coexist with challenging elements during a psychedelic session, a possibility that warrants further qualitative investigation. A new mystical language dictionary is provided for future research.