PMID- 30816797
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20200812
LR  - 20200812
IS  - 1461-7285 (Electronic)
IS  - 0269-8811 (Linking)
VI  - 33
IP  - 9
DP  - 2019 Sep
TI  - Recreational use of psychedelics is associated with elevated personality trait 
      openness: Exploration of associations with brain serotonin markers.
PG  - 1068-1075
LID - 10.1177/0269881119827891 [doi]
AB  - BACKGROUND: Recent studies have suggested therapeutic benefits of psychedelics 
      for a variety of mental health conditions. The understanding of how single 
      psychedelic administrations can induce long-lasting effects are, in large, still 
      lacking. However, recent studies in both healthy and clinical populations suggest 
      a role for personality changes. AIM: To test support for some of these plausible 
      mechanisms we evaluated (cross-sectional) associations between recreational use 
      of psychedelics and 3,4-methylene-dioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) and (a) personality 
      measures and (b) key markers of cerebral serotonergic signalling (serotonin 
      transporter and serotonin-2A-receptor binding). METHODS: In 10 
      psychedelic-preferring recreational users, 14 MDMA-preferring users and 21 
      non-using controls, personality was assessed using the 'big five' instrument 
      Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R). Frontal serotonin transporter and 
      serotonin-2A-receptor binding potentials were quantified using [(11)C]DASB and 
      [(18)F]altanserin positron emission tomography, respectively. RESULTS: Of the 
      five NEO-PI-R traits, only openness to experience scores differed between the 
      three groups; psychedelic-preferring recreational users showing higher openness 
      to experience scores when compared with both MDMA-preferring users and controls. 
      Openness to experience scores were positively associated with lifetime number of 
      psychedelic exposures, and among all MDMA-preferring user/psychedelic-preferring 
      recreational user individuals, frontal serotonin transporter binding - but not 
      frontal serotonin-2A-receptor binding - was positively associated with openness 
      to experience. CONCLUSION: Our findings from this cross-sectional study support 
      increasing evidence of a positive association between psychedelic experiences and 
      openness to experience, and (a) expands this to the context of 'recreational' 
      psychedelics use, and (b) links serotonergic neurotransmission to openness to 
      experience. A modulation of personality induced by psychedelic experiences may 
      have important therapeutic implications via its impact on peoples' value systems, 
      cognitive flexibility, and individual and social behaviour.
FAU - Erritzoe, David
AU  - Erritzoe D
AUID- ORCID: 0000-0002-7022-6211
AD  - Imperial College London, London, UK.
AD  - Neurobiology Research Unit, Rigshospitalet, Denmark.
FAU - Smith, James
AU  - Smith J
AD  - East London NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK.
FAU - Fisher, Patrick M
AU  - Fisher PM
AD  - Neurobiology Research Unit, Rigshospitalet, Denmark.
FAU - Carhart-Harris, Robin
AU  - Carhart-Harris R
AUID- ORCID: 0000-0002-6062-7150
AD  - Imperial College London, London, UK.
FAU - Frokjaer, Vibe G
AU  - Frokjaer VG
AD  - Neurobiology Research Unit, Rigshospitalet, Denmark.
AD  - Mental Health Services Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
FAU - Knudsen, Gitte M
AU  - Knudsen GM
AD  - Neurobiology Research Unit, Rigshospitalet, Denmark.
AD  - Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, 
      Denmark.
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
PT  - Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
DEP - 20190228
PL  - United States
TA  - J Psychopharmacol
JT  - Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England)
JID - 8907828
RN  - 0 (Biomarkers)
RN  - 0 (Hallucinogens)
RN  - 0 (Serotonin Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins)
RN  - 333DO1RDJY (Serotonin)
RN  - KE1SEN21RM (N-Methyl-3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine)
SB  - IM
MH  - Adolescent
MH  - Adult
MH  - Biomarkers/*metabolism
MH  - Brain/drug effects/metabolism
MH  - Case-Control Studies
MH  - Cross-Sectional Studies
MH  - Female
MH  - Hallucinogens/*therapeutic use
MH  - Humans
MH  - Male
MH  - N-Methyl-3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine/therapeutic use
MH  - Personality/*drug effects
MH  - Positron-Emission Tomography/methods
MH  - Serotonin/*metabolism
MH  - Serotonin Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins/metabolism
MH  - Young Adult
OTO - NOTNLM
OT  - 3,4-methylene-dioxymethamphetamine
OT  - Openness
OT  - psychedelics
OT  - serotonin
OT  - serotonin transporter
EDAT- 2019/03/01 06:00
MHDA- 2020/08/13 06:00
CRDT- 2019/03/01 06:00
PHST- 2019/03/01 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2020/08/13 06:00 [medline]
PHST- 2019/03/01 06:00 [entrez]
AID - 10.1177/0269881119827891 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - J Psychopharmacol. 2019 Sep;33(9):1068-1075. doi: 10.1177/0269881119827891. Epub 
      2019 Feb 28.