Turn On, Tune In, Drop Your Anxiety Levels

During the COVID-19, as the nations struggled with lockdowns and isolation, depression rates among adults skyrocketed from pre-COVID 8.5% to 27.8%. Researchers reported a 14% rise in anxiety for residents in Australia, Canada, the U.K., and the U.S. 

A dean at the Boston University School of Public Health, Prof. Sandro Galea, published research on mental health aspects of the pandemic last year. The report shows the pandemic had an unprecedented impact on mental health.

“Depression in the general population after prior large-scale traumatic events has been observed to, at most, double,” Galea said.

According to a study on the COVID-19 outbreak’s impact on mental health, users of psychedelic drugs experienced less stress during the pandemic than those who had not. Research before COVID had already demonstrated the potential for psychedelic drugs as treatments for depression, anxiety, addiction, and other mental health conditions.

In a study titled “Cross-Sectional Associations Between Lifetime Use of Psychedelic Drugs and Psychometric Measures During the COVID-19 Confinement: A Transcultural Study,” researchers in the Netherlands, Spain, and Brazil studied how previous psychedelic use affected mental health during the pandemic. 

From April through July of 2020, when much of the world was under lockdown to help stem the spread of the virus, researchers surveyed 2,974 people. More than half never used psychedelics, 606 were occasional users, and 497 participants regularly used psychedelics. The psychedelics in question included psilocybin, peyote, MDMA, ayahuasca, LSD, San Pedro, and 5-MeO-DMT. While these psychedelics are very different from taking a toke from the bong, some say marijuana also has psychedelic properties in large doses.

The authors of the study noted that regular psychedelic drug users “reported less psychological distress, less peritraumatic stress, and more social support.”

Half of the participants who had used psychedelic drugs said their previous psychedelic use positively impacted their ability to cope with the stress of the lockdowns. More than a third (35 percent) said their past psychedelic drug use did not affect their management ability, and 16 percent said their experience with the compounds had a small beneficial impact.

The study also revealed other factors that could impact mental health: Nearly a fifth of participants reported losing their job, and almost half said their income had declined during the outbreak.

Regular users of psychedelics also reported more engagement with music, meditation, yoga, and Pilates. In contrast, those who do not use psychedelics said they spent more time doing aerobic exercise, playing video games, watching television, movies, and news coverage related to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The researchers wrote that it is unclear if the drugs are responsible for the difference in stress levels. They noted that healthier eating habits, spending more time outside and spending less time listening to or viewing news coverage about the pandemic could further impact mental health.
“Our findings showed that regular users of psychedelic drugs had less psychological stress and some personality differences when compared to occasional users and non-users,” the study’s authors concluded. “This suggests that either the use of psychedelics might be a protective factor itself or people with certain previous traits are more prone to frequently using psychedelic drugs.”