ArticleJournal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England)2022
The Acceptance/Avoidance-Promoting Experiences Questionnaire (APEQ): A theory-based approach to psychedelic drugs' effects on psychological flexibility.
Article in Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England), 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 24 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
24 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Psychological Therapy Quantity and Depressive Symptom Reduction in Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.JAMA network open · 2026Pooled it
- Preliminary evidence for the importance of therapeutic alliance in MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for posttraumatic stress disorder.European journal of psychotraumatology · 2024Trial
- The helioscope effect: A new framework for evaluating trauma-related memory processing in psychedelic experiences.Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England) · 2026Article
- Major life changes following psychedelic use: A retrospective survey among people using psychedelics naturalistically.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms following psychedelic use: a naturalistic survey study.Psychological medicine · 2026Article
- Exploring the benefits of altered states of consciousness and reduced experiential avoidance for mental well-being: insights from a global study on high ventilation breathwork.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Self-perceived burden, fear of progression and psychological flexibility in cervical cancer survivors: A moderated network analysis.Asia-Pacific journal of oncology nursing · 2025Article
- The Afterglow Inventory (AGI): Validation of a new instrument for measuring subacute effects of classic serotonergic psychedelics.Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England) · 2025Article
- Perceived changes in mental health and social engagement attributed to a single psychedelic experience in autistic adults: results from an online survey.Psychopharmacology · 2025Article
- Article
- Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy Training: An Argument in Support of Firsthand Experience of Nonordinary States of Consciousness in the Development of Competence.Psychedelic medicine (New Rochelle, N.Y.) · 2024Review
- Measuring psychotherapeutic processes in the context of psychedelic experiences: Validation of the General Change Mechanisms Questionnaire (GCMQ).Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England) · 2024Article
- Subjective long-term emotional and social effects of recreational MDMA use: the role of setting and intentions.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Psilocybin-assisted therapy for severe alcohol use disorder: protocol for a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, 7-month parallel-group phase II superiority trial.BMC psychiatry · 2024Article
- Assessment of the acute subjective psychedelic experience: A review of patient-reported outcome measures in clinical research on classical psychedelics.Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England) · 2024Review
- Development of the Protective Strategies for Psychedelics Scale: A novel inventory to assess safety strategies in the context of psychedelics.Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England) · 2024Article
- Ayahuasca-assisted meaning reconstruction therapy for grief: a non-randomized clinical trial protocol.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Article
- The revival of the psychedelic experience scale: Revealing its extended-mystical, visual, and distressing experiential spectrum with LSD and psilocybin studies.Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England) · 2024Article
- Mindfulness meditation and psychedelics: potential synergies and commonalities.Pharmacological reports : PR · 2023Review
- Psilocybin-Assisted Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Adults with Major Depressive Disorder: Rationale and Treatment Development.Psychedelic medicine (New Rochelle, N.Y.) · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundMany benefits and some harms associated with psychedelic use could be attributable to these drugs' acceptance/avoidance-promoting effects and corresponding changes in psychological flexibility. Underlying psychological mechanisms are insufficiently understood.
aimThe purpose of this study was the validation of a psychological model of acceptance/avoidance-promoting psychedelic experiences, which included the development of a theory-based self-report instrument: the Acceptance/Avoidance-Promoting Experiences Questionnaire (APEQ). Its two main scales, acceptance-related experience (ACE) and avoidance-related experience (AVE), represent the theorized model's core constructs. We aimed to test the model's central assumptions of complementarity (ACE and AVE may occur alternatingly but not simultaneously, and are therefore empirically independent), intertwinedness (subaspects within ACE and AVE are mutually contingent and therefore highly inter-correlated), context-dependence (ACE and AVE depend on context factors) and interaction (longer-term outcomes depend on the interplay between ACE and AVE).
methodA bilingual retrospective online survey including 997 English- and 836 German-speaking participants. Each participant reported on one psychedelic experience occasioned by lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), psilocybin, mescaline, or ayahuasca.
resultsWhereas ACE and AVE were found to be relatively independent aspects of participants' reported psychedelic experiences (complementarity), their subaspects were mostly distinguishable but strongly correlated among each other (intertwinedness). Therapeutic, escapist, and hedonic use motives were differentially associated with ACE and AVE (context-dependence), which were in turn associated with retrospective changes in psychological flexibility following participants' reported experiences. The positive association between ACE and increased psychological flexibility was significantly moderated by AVE (interaction).
conclusionThese results provide an initial validation of the APEQ and its underlying theoretical model, suggesting the two can help clarify the psychological mechanisms of psychedelic-induced benefits and harms. Both should be further investigated in prospective-longitudinal and clinical studies.
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