Sporadic use of classic psychedelics and neuropsychological performance: A cross-sectional analysis

IF 5.3 2区医学 Q1 CLINICAL NEUROLOGY

Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology & Biological Psychiatry Pub Date : 2025-04-02 DOI:10.1016/j.pnpbp.2025.111353

Simon Reiche , Tim Hirschfeld , Anna Lena Gröticke , Marie Traub , Nicklas Jakob Hafiz , Rico Haas , Lara Sedlaczek , Linda Ortlieb , Georg Leistenschneider , Lukas A. Basedow , Andrea Lohse , Felix Bermpohl , Thomas Günther Riemer , Tomislav Majić

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Abstract

Background

Evidence on the neuropsychological consequences of classic psychedelics like psilocybin, LSD, and ayahuasca is conflicting, and little is known about how sporadic use of psychedelics under naturalistic conditions may affect cognitive functioning. Given the growing interest in the therapeutic potential of psychedelics and the rise in non-medical use, further exploration into their neuropsychological effects is needed.

Methods

This cross-sectional, exploratory study employed a comprehensive neuropsychological test battery to assess cognitive domains such as executive function, memory, attention, and visuospatial abilities among individuals with mild to moderate lifetime use of psychedelics. Analyses compared all users to non-users, moderate users to matched controls, and adjusted dose-response analyses were conducted within the users group.

Results

From 2611 screened individuals, N = 136 participants (84 psychedelic users and 52 controls) were included. Participants were aged 18–50 years. Neuropsychological performance was broadly equivalent between users and controls. However, matched-pair analyses showed that psychedelic users had a modest advantage in executive functions, especially superior performance on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) (p < .05). Dose-response analyses further corroborated these findings, indicating a positive association between lifetime psychedelic use and performance on the WCST, specifically total errors (p < .001), perseverative responses (p < .001), perseverative errors (p < .001), non-perseverative errors (p = .008), and conceptual level responses (p = .004).

Conclusions

The study did not detect any negative associations between sporadic lifetime psychedelic use and cognition. Instead, a moderate association with executive functioning was found, indicating increased cognitive flexibility in users. Dose-response analyses further supported this relationship.

查看原文本刊更多论文

偶尔使用经典迷幻药和神经心理学表现：横断面分析。

背景：关于经典迷幻药如裸盖菇素、LSD和死藤水的神经心理学后果的证据是相互矛盾的，并且很少有人知道在自然条件下偶尔使用迷幻药会如何影响认知功能。鉴于对致幻剂治疗潜力的兴趣日益增长和非医疗用途的增加，需要进一步探索其神经心理作用。方法：本横断面探索性研究采用综合神经心理学测试来评估轻度至中度致幻剂终生使用个体的认知领域，如执行功能、记忆、注意力和视觉空间能力。分析比较了所有使用者与非使用者，中度使用者与匹配对照，并在使用者组内进行了调整剂量-反应分析。结果：从2611名筛选个体中，N = 包括136名参与者（84名迷幻药使用者和52名对照组）。参与者年龄在18-50岁 岁。使用者和控制组的神经心理学表现大致相当。然而，配对分析显示，致幻剂使用者在执行功能上有一定的优势，特别是在威斯康星卡片分类测试（WCST）上的表现更优（p ）。结论：本研究没有发现零星的终身致幻剂使用与认知之间存在任何负相关。相反，它与执行功能有适度的联系，表明使用者的认知灵活性增加了。剂量-反应分析进一步支持了这种关系。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology & Biological Psychiatry 医学-精神病学

CiteScore

12.00

自引率

1.80%

发文量

153

审稿时长

56 days

期刊介绍： Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology & Biological Psychiatry is an international and multidisciplinary journal which aims to ensure the rapid publication of authoritative reviews and research papers dealing with experimental and clinical aspects of neuro-psychopharmacology and biological psychiatry. Issues of the journal are regularly devoted wholly in or in part to a topical subject. Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology & Biological Psychiatry does not publish work on the actions of biological extracts unless the pharmacological active molecular substrate and/or specific receptor binding properties of the extract compounds are elucidated.