The psychological processes of classic psychedelics in the treatment of depression: a systematic review protocol.

This systematic review will collect and summarize studies on the psychological processes that may explain how psychedelic therapy helps treat depression. The review will search four databases for research involving classic psychedelics in adults with depression, focusing on studies that report or propose psychological mechanisms behind symptom improvement. Two reviewers will independently screen and assess the studies, then synthesize findings separately for empirical and non-empirical work. Because this is a new field, the review expects to find limited empirical research and variation among studies. The goal is to map the current evidence, identify gaps, and suggest variables for future investigation.

Study at a glance

Abstract

BACKGROUND: There is currently renewed interest in the use of psychedelic therapy in the treatment of psychiatric disorders, including depression. The proposed systematic review will aim to identify, evaluate and summarise the psychological processes of change underlying psychedelic therapy for depression in the current literature and consider the implications these processes may have on the psychotherapy component of treatment. METHODS: Scopus, PsycINFO, PubMed and Web of Science databases will be searched using relevant terms. Studies will be included if they discuss the use of a classic psychedelic to treat depression symptomology in an adult population and report or propose psychological processes responsible for depression symptom change. Two authors will independently screen articles, complete quality assessment tools and conduct data extraction. Empirical and non-empirical research will be extracted and synthesised separately. A narrative synthesis approach will be used to report psychological processes identified in the literature. DISCUSSION: This systematic review will be the first to collate available evidence on the psychological processes associated with psychedelic therapy for depression. The preliminary nature of this research field is expected to result in the review having several limitations, namely heterogeneity between studies and the inclusion of limited empirical research. We intend for this review to present the current state of the literature, identify gaps and generate candidate variables that warrant further investigation. SYSTEMATIC REVIEW: PROSPERO CRD42020197202.