As psychedelics gain ground as a potential therapy for mental health disorders, there remains a pressing concern that patients in clinical trials may have adverse effects to the drugs. New research identifies personality traits that have been associated with positive and negative experiences on psychedelics in previous studies, information that could help predict how future clinical trial participants will respond to the drugs.

New research identifies personality traits that have been associated with positive and negative experiences on psychedelics in previous studies, information that could help predict how future clinical trial participants will respond to the drugs.

The findings suggest that people more open to new experiences and willing to surrender to the unknown may be best positioned to have a positive experience on psychedelics, and individuals who tend to be preoccupied or apprehensive could be more likely to have a negative, or challenging, experience.

These predictions could be used by scientists to help hesitant clinical trial patients feel more open to the potential therapy, possibly by offering lower doses as a starting point, researchers say — though such a concept remains speculative.

«The findings point to interesting testable things we can look at in future research,» said Alan Davis, assistant professor of social work at The Ohio State University and senior author of the review. «It might be plausible to use threshold doses that are smaller than those used in a trial as a first exposure so people have less anxiety, experience the benefit and, from that, go into a higher dose later.»

The study is published online in the journal ACS Pharmacology & Translational Science.

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Materials provided by Ohio State University. Original written by Emily Caldwell. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.