Hallucinogenic drug induced states resemble acute endogenous psychoses: results of an empirical study

1998 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 399-406 ◽  
Author(s):  
E Gouzoulis-Mayfrank ◽  
E Habermeyer ◽  
L Hermle ◽  
AM Steinmeyer ◽  
HJ Kunert ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Psychotic Episode ◽  
Self Assessment ◽  
Drug Induced ◽  
Negative Experiences ◽  
States Of Consciousness ◽  
Hallucinogenic Drug ◽  
Endogenous Psychoses ◽  
Thought Disturbance ◽  
Altered State Of Consciousness ◽  
Assessment Scales

SummaryClinical evidence suggests that hallucinogenic drug-induced altered states of consciousness (ASCs) and the incipient, acute stages of endogenous psychoses share many common phenomenological features. The aim of our study was to assess hallucinogen-like phenomena in endogenous psychotic patients using standardised methods. We examined 93 endogenous psychotic patients, 50 healthy controls and a small group of drug induced psychotic patients (n = 7) with two ASC self-assessment scales (questionnaire APZ = Abnormer Psychischer Zustand = Altered State of Consciousness [Dittrich et al, 1985]; and questionnaire OAV = Abbreviation of the three subscales: Oceanic Boundlessness/Angst = Dread of Ego Dissolution/Visionary Restructuralisation [Bodmer 1989]). Patients were examined shortly after remission of their last acute psychotic episode and they answered the questionnaires referring to the early phase of this episode. Differences in the questionnaire scores were significant between psychotic patients and controls. Drug induced patients had numerically higher scores than endogenous psychotic patients, however these differences were only significant for the APZ total score and the undifferentiated items of the APZ, but not for the three APZ subscale and the OAV scores. More than 50% of the endogenous psychotic patients answered 26% of the APZ-and 43% of the OAV-items with “yes”. The OAV total score and the OSE (Ozeanische Selbstentgrenzung = oceanic boundlessness) scores of both questionnaires correlated significantly with BPRS Factor 3 (thought disturbance). Our results support the hypothesis that hallucinogen-like experiences represent common phenomena during the acute stages of endogenous psychoses. Remarkably, these phenomena include subjectively pleasant experiences of the OSE dimension. In the routine clinical assessment of endogenous psychotic patients experiences of this dimension may be more easily overlooked than the negative experiences of the AIA dimension (AIA: Angst vor der Ich-Auflösung = dread of ego dissolution).

7. Altered states of consciousness

2017 ◽  
pp. 100-116
Author(s):  
Susan Blackmore
Keyword(s):  
Normal State ◽  
Altered States Of Consciousness ◽  
Psychoactive Drugs ◽  
Altered States ◽  
States Of Consciousness ◽  
Body Experiences ◽  
The World ◽  
Altered State Of Consciousness ◽  
Near Death Experiences

‘Altered states of consciousness’ discusses the states of consciousness during sleep, dreaming, hallucinations, out-of-body experiences, near-death experiences, meditation, and after taking psychoactive drugs. Psychologist Charles Tart defines an altered state of consciousness (ASC) as ‘a qualitative alteration in the overall pattern of mental functioning, such that the experiencer feels his consciousness is radically different from the way it functions ordinarily’. This certainly captures the idea of ASCs, but also creates problems, such as knowing what a ‘normal’ state is. In both mystical experiences and long-term meditation, people describe seeing through the illusions of duality and seeing the world as it truly is.

Hallucinogens: Magic Mushrooms, Ayahuasca, Mescal Buttons, and Dr. Hofmann’s Problem Child

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jerrold Winter
Keyword(s):  
Daily Life ◽  
Religious Experiences ◽  
Drug Induced ◽  
States Of Consciousness ◽  
University Of Berlin ◽  
The One ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The University ◽  
Paranoid Psychosis ◽  
Unusual Problem

There are about 400,000 species of plants in this world. Only a small fraction, perhaps 100 in number, contain hallucinogenic chemicals. Nearly a century ago, Lewis Lewin, professor of pharmacology at the University of Berlin, in speaking of drugs he called phantasticants, said “The passionate desire which . . . leads man to flee from the monotony of daily life . . . has made him discover strange substances (which) have been integral to human evolution both societal and cultural for thousands of years.” An unusual problem presents itself to me in writing about these drugs: They straddle the worlds of science and mysticism. The Encyclopedia Britannica defines mysticism as the practice of religious ecstasies (religious experiences during alternate states of consciousness), together with whatever ideologies, ethics, rites, myths, legends, and magic may be related to them. Science I am comfortable with; mysticism not so much. Yet in our exploration of the agents found in this chapter, we will encounter many persons speaking of drug-induced mystical experiences. I have attempted to get around my unease by first providing the history and the pharmacology of these agents and then touching only lightly on mysticism, allowing readers to draw their own conclusions. What shall we call these chemicals? Hallucinogen, a substance that induces perception of objects with no reality, is the term most commonly encountered and the one that I have settled on for the title of this chapter. However, it comes with a caveat. Albert Hofmann, the discoverer of LSD, our prototypic hallucinogen, has pointed out that a true hallucination has the force of reality, but the effects of LSD only rarely include this feature. Two additional terms that we will find useful are psychotomimetic and psychedelic. We have already considered the former, an ability to mimic psychosis, in our discussion of amphetamine-induced paranoid psychosis in chapter 4 and the effects of phencyclidine in chapter 6. A psychedelic was defined in 1957 by Humphrey Osmond, inventor of the word, as a drug like LSD “which enriches the mind and enlarges the vision.”

Should Significant Others Be Encouraged to Join Adult Group Audiologic Rehabilitation Classes?

2003 ◽  
Vol 14 (10) ◽  
pp. 545-555 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jill E. Preminger
Keyword(s):  
Communication Strategies ◽  
Significant Others ◽  
Adult Group ◽  
Self Assessment ◽  
Class Participation ◽  
Hearing Handicap ◽  
Hearing Aid Benefit ◽  
Assessment Scales ◽  
Audiologic Rehabilitation ◽  
And Training

The benefit of participation in group audiologic rehabilitation classes was examined for adults with hearing loss (subjects) and their significant others (SOs). Thirteen subjects attended the classes with their SOs, and 12 subjects attended the classes on their own. All subjects attended six 90-minute classes consisting of informational lectures, and training in communication strategies, auditory perception, and auditory and visual perception. Self-assessment scales measuring hearing aid benefit and use of communication strategies were completed prior to class participation and following the completion of all classes. The results indicated that the majority of subjects reported increased use of communication strategies following class participation. In addition, a significant reduction in hearing handicap following class participation was measured across all subjects and SOs, and the greatest reduction in handicap was measured for subjects who attended the classes with their SOs. SO participation in group AR (audiologic rehabilitation) classes should be encouraged.

scholarly journals Plasticity in animal personality traits: does prior experience alter the degree of boldness?

2006 ◽  
Vol 274 (1608) ◽  
pp. 333-339 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashley J Frost ◽  
Alexandria Winrow-Giffen ◽  
Paul J Ashley ◽  
Lynne U Sneddon
Keyword(s):  
Personality Traits ◽  
Adaptive Response ◽  
Competitive Ability ◽  
Prior Experience ◽  
Animal Personality ◽  
Strategic Decisions ◽  
Control Groups ◽  
Self Assessment ◽  
Negative Experiences ◽  
Novel Object

Theoreticians predict that animal ‘personality’ traits may be maladaptive if fixed throughout different contexts, so the present study aimed to test whether these traits are fixed or plastic. Rainbow trout ( Onchorhyncus mykiss ) were given emboldening or negative experiences in the forms of watching bold or shy individuals responding to novelty or winning or losing fights to examine whether prior experience affected boldness. Bold individuals that lost fights or watched shy demonstrators became more shy by increasing their latency to approach a novel object, whereas shy observers that watched bold demonstrators remained cautious and did not modify their responses to novelty. Shy winners became bolder and decreased their latency to approach a novel object, but shy losers also displayed this shift. In comparison, control groups showed no change in behaviour. Bold fishes given negative experiences reduced their boldness which may be an adaptive response; however, shy fishes may base their strategic decisions upon self-assessment of their relative competitive ability and increase their boldness in situations where getting to resources more quickly ensures they outcompete better competitors.

Diagnostic Stability of Psychotic Disorders: A Retrospective Study

2009 ◽  
Vol 24 (S1) ◽  
pp. 1-1
Author(s):  
C. Silveira ◽  
A. Norton ◽  
A. Martins ◽  
I. Domingues ◽  
R. Moreira ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Retrospective Study ◽  
Psychotic Disorders ◽  
University Hospital ◽  
Patient Treatment ◽  
Psychotic Episode ◽  
List Type ◽  
Clinical Expertise ◽  
Drug Induced ◽  
Clinical Records ◽  
Over Time

Background:An essential condition to validate a diagnosis is its stability over time. Since there are no biological markers for psychiatric disorders, the diagnosis relies on clinical expertise, with several consequences in treatment planning, disease burden and disability, affecting outcome and public health.Objectives:The aims of this study were:1.the assessment of long term stability of the diagnosis of psychotic disorders,2.its implications in patient treatment, and3.the evaluation of eventual predictors of diagnosis stability.Methods:This was a retrospective study carried out in the Department of Psychiatry of a large University Hospital (Hospital S. João, Porto, Portugal). Patients enrolled were admitted in the inpatient unit from 2000 to 2003 (n=190, 12.41% of 1531 patients admitted), experienced a first psychotic episode, and fulfilled criteria for one of the following diagnosis: schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder, drug induced psychosis, acute and transient psychotic disorders, schizophreniform disorder and psychosis NOS (ICD-10 classification). the diagnoses were extracted from clinical records, and reassessed five years after the initial diagnosis. the analysis focuses on diagnostic agreement over time; clinical and demographic variables were also collected and putative associations with diagnostic shift considered.Results:The study is now under statistic evaluation.

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