Major life changes following psychedelic use: A retrospective survey among people using psychedelics naturalistically

A new questionnaire, the Psychedelic-related Major Life Changes Questionnaire (P-MLCQ), was developed to capture major life changes following psychedelic use that standard clinical measures miss. In a survey of 581 people who used psychedelics naturally, 83% reported at least one major life change influenced by their use, averaging 3.29 changes per person. The most common changes were in goals (54%), values (54%), and religion or spirituality (49%). These changes were rated highly positively on average. More frequent psychedelic use over the past five years was linked to more reported life changes. Women were 21% more likely than men to report changes, while older age and higher education were associated with fewer changes. The authors note that results may be influenced by positive bias and need replication in representative samples.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Psychedelic drugs show promise in facilitating a variety of long-term psychological changes, but they may also lead to unexpected major life changes that have not been captured by measures typically used in clinical trials. The Psychedelic-related Major Life Changes Questionnaire ( P-MLCQ ) was created to assess psychedelic-related major life changes across 10 different domains and evaluated in a sample reporting naturalistic psychedelic use ( N = 581). 482/581 participants (82.96%) reported at least one major life change influenced by their psychedelic use ( M = 3.29, SD = 2.60), including changes in Goals (53.70%), Values (53.53%), Religion/spirituality (49.05%), Social activities (37.01%), Eating habits/diet (34.08%), Occupation/Line of work (32.36%), Hobbies (29.43%), Political views (14.97%), Sexuality (13.08%), and Marital status/non-marital partner change (12.22%). Major life changes were rated highly positively ( M = 4.64, SD = 0.61 on a 5-point scale). There was a positive relationship between frequency of psychedelic use over the last five years and total number of psychedelic-related major life changes ( r = 0.34, p < 0.001). Women were 21% more likely than men to report major life changes, whereas age and education-level were negatively related to major life changes. Although our results support that psychedelic use can be followed by major life changes, future research is needed to examine the generalizability of these results in representative samples that are less susceptible to positive bias.