Evidence map›Paper›PMID 37905369›Full record

ArticleJournal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England)2024

The revival of the psychedelic experience scale: Revealing its extended-mystical, visual, and distressing experiential spectrum with LSD and psilocybin studies.

Kurt Stocker, Matthias Hartmann, Laura Ley, Anna M Becker, Friederike Holze, Matthias E Liechti

Open access · hybridAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England), 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
14citing papers in PubMed
6.3field-weighted citation impact, top 3% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

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.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

14 citing papers in PubMed, 20 citations in OpenAlex.

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  4. Acute effects of MDMA, MDA, lysine-MDMA, and lysine-MDA in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover trial in healthy participants.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026
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  8. Acute effects of R-MDMA, S-MDMA, and racemic MDMA in a randomized double-blind cross-over trial in healthy participants.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2024
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.

Kurt StockerPsychopharmacology Research, Division of Clinical Pharmacology & Toxicology, Department of Clinical Research, University Hospital Basel, and University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.ORCID 0000-0002-6161-7114
Matthias HartmannFaculty of Psychology, UniDistance Suisse, Brig, Switzerland.
Laura LeyPsychopharmacology Research, Division of Clinical Pharmacology & Toxicology, Department of Clinical Research, University Hospital Basel, and University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
Anna M BeckerPsychopharmacology Research, Division of Clinical Pharmacology & Toxicology, Department of Clinical Research, University Hospital Basel, and University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
Friederike HolzePsychopharmacology Research, Division of Clinical Pharmacology & Toxicology, Department of Clinical Research, University Hospital Basel, and University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
Matthias E LiechtiPsychopharmacology Research, Division of Clinical Pharmacology & Toxicology, Department of Clinical Research, University Hospital Basel, and University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.ORCID 0000-0002-1765-9659
University of Basel · CH

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundResearch with the Psychedelic Experience Questionnaire/Scale (PES) focuses on questions relating to mystical experience (Mystical Experience Questionnaire (MEQ)). The psychometric potential of the non-MEQ items of the PES remains largely unexplored.

aimsWe investigated whether the PES also yields subscales besides the MEQ30 subscales.

methodsData from 239 PES measurements (140 healthy participants) from six studies with moderate to high doses of lysergic acid diethylamide and/or psilocybin were included. New subscales (with items other than MEQ30) were created and validated as follows: (1) theoretical derivation of candidate items; (2) removal of items with rare experiences; (3) exploratory factor analysis; and (4) confirmatory factor analysis. Correlations of subscales within the PES and between the PES and the 5-Dimensional Altered States of Consciousness Scale (5D-ASC) were performed. In addition, a cluster analysis using all items (except rare experiences) was performed.

resultsThe reliability of the four original factors of the MEQ30 was confirmed and four additional factors for the non-MEQ items were revealed: paradoxicality, connectedness, visual experience, and distressing experience. The first two additional factors were strongly correlated with the MEQ30 mystical subscale. Adding the new subscales to the MEQ30 subscales increased the explained variance with the 5D-ASC. The cluster analysis confirmed our main results and provided additional insights for future psychedelic psychometrics.

conclusionThe study yields a new validated 6-factor structure for extended mystical experience (MEQ40: MEQ30 + Paradoxicality + Connectedness) and covers psychedelic experience as a whole more comprehensively than has hitherto been possible within a single questionnaire (PES48). The entire PES (PES100) can also be used for further future psychedelic-psychometric research.

Indexed as

HallucinogensConsciousnessHumansLysergic Acid DiethylamideMysticismPsilocybinReproducibility of ResultsHallucinogensLysergic Acid DiethylamidePsilocybinLSDmystical experiencepsilocybinPsychedelic experiencepsychometrics

Identifiers

PMID37905369
PMCPMC10851635
OpenAlexW4388034792

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.