Associations Between Psilocybin Use Motives and Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioural Self-Stigma.

People who use psilocybin for therapeutic or personal growth reasons tend to experience less self-stigma—the internalization of negative societal beliefs—while those who use it for social recreation tend to experience more self-stigma. In a survey of 239 people with prior psilocybin experience, three distinct motives emerged: social recreation, experiential enhancement, and therapeutic growth. Greater therapeutic growth motives were linked to lower self-stigma across cognitive, affective, and behavioral dimensions, and also to more frequent psilocybin use. Social recreation motives predicted higher self-stigma. Experiential enhancement showed no significant association with self-stigma. The results suggest that why people use psilocybin may shape how they internalize stigma, with implications for other substances and for clinical use.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Background: Self-stigma refers to the internalization of negative societal beliefs and has been associated with reduced self-efficacy, self-esteem and treatment avoidance among substance users. However, little research has explored antecedents of self-stigma such as substance use motives. This may be particularly salient for psilocybin which is used both as a therapeutic agent and a recreational substance and these different motivations for use may shape how users' behaviors are interpreted and internalized. Methods: The current study assessed associations between motives for psilocybin use and self-stigma across cognitive, affective and behavioral dimensions. Participants with prior experience of psilocybin (N = 239) completed an online questionnaire assessing their motives for using psilocybin and levels of self-stigma. A principal component analysis identified three components of psilocybin use motives, Social Recreation (ωt = 0.78), Experiential Enhancement (ωt = 0.80) and Therapeutic Growth (ωt = 0.73). Results: Hierarchical regression analyses demonstrated that greater Therapeutic Growth motives were associated with reduced self-stigma while greater Social Recreation motives were associated with increased self-stigma for all dimensions. No significant associations were found for Experiential Enhancement. Therapeutic Growth motives were also associated with increased frequency of psilocybin use. Conclusions: Although the variance explained was modest, these findings suggest that motives for psilocybin use may influence the extent to which users internalize stigma. This finding has implications for other substances and is important given the growing clinical interest in psilocybin.