The hidden therapist: evidence for a central role of music in psychedelic therapy.
Author: Kaelen M1, Giribaldi B2, Raine J3, Evans L2, Timmerman C2,4, Rodriguez N2, Roseman L2,4, Feilding A5, Nutt D2, Carhart-Harris R2
Affiliation:
1Psychedelic Research Group, Department of Medicine, Imperial College London, London, W12 0NN, UK. m.kaelen@imperial.ac.uk.
2Psychedelic Research Group, Department of Medicine, Imperial College London, London, W12 0NN, UK.
3School of Psychology, Sussex University, Brighton, BN1 9RH, UK.
4Computational, Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience Laboratory (C3NL), Department of Medicine, Imperial College London, London, W12 0NN, UK.
5The Beckley Foundation, Oxford, OX3 9SY, UK.
Conference/Journal: Psychopharmacology (Berl).
Date published: 2018 Feb 2
Other:
Special Notes: doi: 10.1007/s00213-017-4820-5. [Epub ahead of print] , Word Count: 272
RATIONALE: Recent studies have supported the safety and efficacy of psychedelic therapy for mood disorders and addiction. Music is considered an important component in the treatment model, but little empirical research has been done to examine the magnitude and nature of its therapeutic role.
OBJECTIVES: The present study assessed the influence of music on the acute experience and clinical outcomes of psychedelic therapy.
METHODS: Semi-structured interviews inquired about the different ways in which music influenced the experience of 19 patients undergoing psychedelic therapy with psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression. Interpretative phenomenological analysis was applied to the interview data to identify salient themes. In addition, ratings were given for each patient for the extent to which they expressed "liking," "resonance" (the music being experienced as "harmonious" with the emotional state of the listener), and "openness" (acceptance of the music-evoked experience).
RESULTS: Analyses of the interviews revealed that the music had both "welcome" and "unwelcome" influences on patients' subjective experiences. Welcome influences included the evocation of personally meaningful and therapeutically useful emotion and mental imagery, a sense of guidance, openness, and the promotion of calm and a sense of safety. Conversely, unwelcome influences included the evocation of unpleasant emotion and imagery, a sense of being misguided and resistance. Correlation analyses showed that patients' experience of the music was associated with the occurrence of "mystical experiences" and "insightfulness." Crucially, the nature of the music experience was significantly predictive of reductions in depression 1 week after psilocybin, whereas general drug intensity was not.
CONCLUSIONS: This study indicates that music plays a central therapeutic function in psychedelic therapy.
KEYWORDS: Depression; Music; Psilocybin; Psychedelic therapy
PMID: 29396616 DOI: 10.1007/s00213-017-4820-5
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