Ongoing research from our group, presented at Breaking Convention 2019:
Creative thinking and empathy are crucial for everyday interactions and subjective well-being. This is emphasised by studies showing a reduction in these skills in populations where social interaction and subjective well-being is significantly compromised (e.g. depression). Anecdotal reports and recent studies suggest a single administration of psilocybin can enhance such processes and could therefore be a potential treatment. However, it has yet to be assessed how long effects last. Utilising a multi-modal study design, the present study found a time and construct-related differentiation of effects of psilocybin on creativity and empathy. Importantly, whereas acutely psilocybin decreased performance on these measures, persisting increases were seen sub-acutely. Thus, findings could suggest that psilocybin opens up a “window of opportunity” where therapeutic interventions could prove more effective. However, current findings also emphasise the importance to assess effects in different settings, with different doses, and times post-dosing, in order to thoroughly evaluate whether psilocybin may hold therapeutic value for treating stress-related mood disorders.