The proposed pilot study will assess whether ingestion of a classic hallucinogen (psilocybin) leads to changes in emotion processing and neural circuitry that may predict repeated self-administration of this drug and underlie an atypical mechanism of abuse liability, which may vitally contribute to the understanding of the potential for abuse and the underlying mechanisms supporting abuse of classic hallucinogens.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
NA
Purpose
BASIC_SCIENCE
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
13
25 mg/70 kg Psilocybin
Behavioral Pharmacology Research Unit, Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center
Baltimore, Maryland, United States
Amygdala Response to Stimuli in the Emotion Recognition Test
Blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) percent signal change in response to stimuli in the emotion recognition task was measured in the left and right amygdala.
Time frame: 1 day pre (baseline), 1 week post, and 1 month post session
Change in Longitudinal Emotion and Mood Questionnaire Scores
Participants were assessed on a variety of questionnaires that probed emotional functioning and mood state. Higher scores on each subscale are indicative of higher levels of each emotion/mood (e.g., low score on Depression (POMS) indicates low level of depressed mood). Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS): Range 0-56 on all subscales Dispositional Positive Emotion Scale (DPES): Range 1-7 on all subscales Positive \& Negative Affect Schedule Expanded (PANAS-X): Range 0-50 on all subscales Profile of Mood States (POMS): Ranges vary by subscale. Tension (0-36); Depression (0-60); Anger (0-48); Fatigue (0-28); Confusion (0-28); Vigor (0-36); Mood Disturbance (-36-168) State Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI): Range 20-80 on all subscales Tellegen Absorption Scale (TAS): Range 0-34 Big Five Inventory (BFI): Range 1-5 on all subscales
Time frame: 1 day pre (baseline), 1 week post, and 1 month post session
Change in Emotional Functioning Task Accuracy
These tasks measure emotional responding that may be altered by psilocybin. Emotional discrimination task: participants were presented with images of emotional facial expressions or shapes (control), and were instructed to discriminate between the images. Emotion recognition task: participants were presented images of actors and were asked to identify the emotional facial expression (happy, sad, fear, angry, neutral) of each actor. Emotional conflict Stroop task: participants were shown emotional facial expressions (targets) with emotional words overlain (distractors) and were asked to identify the valence of the facial expression, either positive or negative.
Time frame: 1 day pre (baseline), 1 week post, and 1 month post session
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Change in Emotional Functioning Tasks Response Time (Milliseconds)
These tasks measure emotional responding that may be altered by psilocybin. Emotional discrimination task: participants were presented with images of emotional facial expressions or shapes (control), and were instructed to discriminate between the images. Emotion recognition task: participants were presented images of actors and were asked to identify the emotional facial expression (happy, sad, fear, angry, neutral) of each actor. Emotional conflict Stroop task: participants were shown emotional facial expressions (targets) with emotional words overlain (distractors) and were asked to identify the valence of the facial expression, either positive or negative.
Time frame: 1-day pre (baseline), 1-week post, 1-month post session