Effects of psilocybin on personality, psychiatric symptoms, and values: Exploring mediating effects of the acute psychedelic experience
Journal of Psychopharmacology January 26, 2026 Jess Kerr-Gaffney, Samuel Myrtle, Famia Askari et al. 2 citations
A single dose of psilocybin, compared to an inert placebo, did not alter personality traits, psychiatric symptoms, or cognitive flexibility in healthy participants. However, both the 10 mg and 25 mg psilocybin groups reported greater changes in personal values at both short-term (day 8) and long-term follow-up (day 85). The acute psychedelic experience, particularly the feeling of oceanic boundlessness, partially explained these value changes, with auditory alterations also playing a role in one subscale. These exploratory findings are tentative and require replication in larger samples.