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Randomized Controlled Trial
. 2024 May;38(5):417-424.
doi: 10.1177/02698811241239206. Epub 2024 Apr 12.

Psychedelics and the 'inner healer': Myth or mechanism?

Joseph Peill  1 , Miriam Marguilho  2 , David Erritzoe  1 , Tommaso Barba  1 , Kyle T Greenway  2   3   4 , Fernando Rosas  1   5   6   7 , Christopher Timmermann  1 , Robin Carhart-Harris  1   8
Affiliations
Randomized Controlled Trial

Psychedelics and the 'inner healer': Myth or mechanism?

Joseph Peill et al. J Psychopharmacol. 2024 May.

Abstract

Background: Reference to an intrinsic healing mechanism or an 'inner healer' is commonplace amongst psychedelic drug-using cultures. The 'inner healer' refers to the belief that psychedelic compounds, plants or concoctions have an intrinsically regenerative action on the mind and brain, analogous to intrinsic healing mechanisms within the physical body, for example, after sickness or injury.

Aims: Here, we sought to test and critique this idea by devising a single subjective rating item pertaining to perceived 'inner healing' effects.

Methods: The item was issued to 59 patients after a single high (25 mg, n = 30) or 'placebo' (1 mg, n = 29) dose of psilocybin in a double-blind randomised controlled trial of psilocybin for depression.

Results: Inner healer scores were higher after the high versus placebo dose of psilocybin (t = 3.88, p < 0.001). Within the high-dose sub-sample only, inner healer scores predicted improved depressive symptomatology at 2 weeks post-dosing.

Conclusions: The principle of activating inner healing mechanisms via psychedelics is scientifically nascent; however, this study takes a positivist and pragmatic step forward, asking whether it warrants further examination.

Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03429075.

Keywords: Healing; Telos; automatic; psychedelic.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of conflicting interestsThe author(s) declared the following potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: DE has within the last 2 years received fees for scientific advisory work from the following (novel psychedelic) companies: Mydecine, Field Trip Health, Entheon, SmallPharma Ltd, Aya Biosciences, Clerkenwell Health and Mindstate Design Lab, and has received an honorarium fee from each of Compass Pathways and Lundbeck for a talk about psychedelic science. RCH reports receiving consulting fees or stock options from Journey Collab, Beckley Psytech, Tryp Therapeutics, Mindstate, Entheos Labs and Otsuka; BG reports receiving consulting fees from Small Pharma Ltd.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Distribution of inner healer scores after sessions with 25 mg versus 1 mg of psilocybin. 25 mg is known as a ‘high’ dose and 1 mg is assumed to be functionally inactive and therefore a ‘placebo’ dose. For display purposes, median values are shown. Scores range across all values for both groups. A significant difference between the groups was found (p < 0.001, t = 3.88).
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Correlation plot of inner healer (acute) and changes in Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) scores from baseline to 2 weeks post-single dose for the 25 mg psilocybin arm. The correlation was significant for BDI versus inner healer scores (r = −0.315, p < 0.05) at 2 weeks. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level and was strengthened when general intensity was added as a covariate (−0.367, p = 0.028).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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