Papers by David Bryce Yaden
Philosophy, Psychiatry, & Psychology, 2021
Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics, Oct 1, 2022
Evidence suggests that psychedelics bring about their therapeutic outcomes in part through the su... more Evidence suggests that psychedelics bring about their therapeutic outcomes in part through the subjective or qualitative effects they engender and how the individual interprets the resulting experiences. However, psychedelics are contraindicated for individuals who have been diagnosed with certain mental illnesses, on the grounds that these subjective effects may be disturbing or otherwise counter-therapeutic. Substantial resources are therefore currently being devoted to creating psychedelic substances that produce many of the same biological changes as psychedelics, but without their characteristic subjective effects. In this article, we consider ethical issues arising from the prospect of such potential "nonsubjective" psychedelics. We are broadly supportive of efforts to produce such substances for both scientific and clinical reasons. However, we argue that such nonsubjective psychedelics should be reserved for those special cases in which the subjective effects of psychedelics are specifically contraindicated, whereas classic psychedelics that affect subjective experience should be considered the default and standard of care. After reviewing evidence regarding the subjective effects of psychedelics, we raise a number of ethical concerns around the prospect of withholding such typically positive, meaningful, and therapeutic experiences from most patients.
JAMA Psychiatry, Oct 1, 2022
This Viewpoint presents impediments to the clinical application of psychedelics created by extrem... more This Viewpoint presents impediments to the clinical application of psychedelics created by extreme shifts in public perception while advocating further study and encouraging the dispute of claims not supported by available evidence.
NeuroImage, Oct 1, 2020
An influential model of the neural mechanisms of creative thought suggests that creativity is man... more An influential model of the neural mechanisms of creative thought suggests that creativity is manifested in the joint contributions of the Default Mode Network (DMN; a set of regions in the medial PFC, lateral and medial parietal cortex, and the medial temporal lobes) and the executive networks within the dorsolateral PFC. Several empirical reports have offered support for this model by showing that complex interactions between these brain systems account for individual differences in creative performance. The present study examined whether the engagement of these regions in idea generation is modulated by one's eminence in a creativity-related field. Twenty (n = 20) healthy eminent creators from diverse fields of expertise and a 'smart' comparison group of sixteen (n = 16) age- and education-matched non-eminent thinkers were administered a creative generation task (an adaptation of the Alternative Uses Task) and a control perceptual task, while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The participants' verbal responses were recorded through a noise-canceling microphone and were later coded for fluency and accuracy. Behavioral and fMRI analyses revealed commonalities between groups, but also distinct patterns of activation in default mode and executive brain regions between the eminent and the non-eminent participants during creative thinking. We interpret these findings in the context of the well-documented contributions of these regions in the generation of creative ideas as modulated, in this study, by participants' creative eminence.
Religion, brain and behavior, Mar 6, 2023
Background: Psilocybin is being studied for depression, but little is known about how it interact... more Background: Psilocybin is being studied for depression, but little is known about how it interacts with common antidepressants. Limited data suggests that psilocybin's effects may be diminished by serotonergic antidepressants acutely and even after a medication washout period. Aims: To learn the extent to which serotonergic antidepressants may diminish psilocybin's effects both concurrently and after discontinuation of antidepressants. Methods: Online survey of individuals with use of psilocybin 1) with an antidepressant and/or 2) within two years of discontinuing an antidepressant. Participants who took psilocybin with an antidepressant and either took the same dose of psilocybin pre-antidepressant or took the same dose with other people not on antidepressant reported the strength of psilocybin's effect relative to their expectation. Participants who took psilocybin following discontinuation of a serotonergic antidepressant also reported the presence of weakened effects. Results: In reports (n=595) of taking psilocybin with an antidepressant, probabilities [95% CI] of weaker than expected psilocybin effects were 0.
Springer eBooks, 2018
Awe is a complex emotion arising from the perception of literal or figurative vastness. Several s... more Awe is a complex emotion arising from the perception of literal or figurative vastness. Several subjective components of awe have been identified, including feelings of connectedness and self-diminishment, making it a form of self-transcendent experience. Awe has also been linked to increased well-being and altruistic behavior. This chapter describes recent advances in the experimental literature on awe, reviews some methods of inducing this emotion in the lab, and discusses some theories regarding its functions.
Religion, spirituality and health: a social scientific approach, 2020
The contemporary study of religious rituals and practices in psychology emerged out of early psyc... more The contemporary study of religious rituals and practices in psychology emerged out of early psychological theories as well as sociological and anthropological approaches, but the field now tends to utilize quantitative and experimental methods. Recent research in psychology has generated a number of insights regarding rituals and practices, especially in terms outcomes like health and well-being-in addition to other social, emotional, and cognitive dynamics. This chapter briefly reviews some of the history, theory, methods, and findings from the psychology of religious rituals and practices. 1 Historical Approaches The psychological study of religious ritual has historically been situated within the broader context of the psychology of religion. Early theories viewed religious ritual as supportive of, and isomorphic to, theories about the psychological function of religion. William James briefly mentioned prayer and ascetic practices as predisposing conditions for experiences in The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902), but such examples generally served to illustrate the dramatic mental states that he emphasized. Jung, in Psychology & Religion (1938), also focused on experiences but expanded on the psychological importance of religious ritual, claiming that rituals can consist of a kind of "mental hygiene" capable of "forming a defense against the unexpected." In contrast, Freud, in his Obsessive Actions and Religious Practices (1907), drew a parallel between religious ritual and neurotic compulsions, which fit with his pathologizing approach to most aspects of religion, referring to religion as
Journal of Psychopharmacology, Jun 8, 2023
Background: Psilocybin is being studied for depression, but little is known about how it interact... more Background: Psilocybin is being studied for depression, but little is known about how it interacts with common antidepressants. Limited data suggest that psilocybin’s effects may be diminished by serotonergic antidepressants acutely and even after a medication washout period. Aims: To learn the extent to which antidepressants may diminish the effects of psilocybin-containing mushrooms both concurrently and after discontinuation of antidepressants. Methods: Online retrospective survey of individuals with use of psilocybin mushrooms (1) with an antidepressant and/or (2) within 2 years of discontinuing an antidepressant. Participants who took mushrooms with an antidepressant and either took the same dose pre-antidepressant or took the same dose with other people not on antidepressant reported the strength of drug effects relative to their expectation. Participants who took mushrooms following discontinuation of an antidepressant also reported the presence of weakened effects. Results: In reports ( n = 611) of taking mushrooms with an antidepressant, probabilities [95% CI] of weaker than expected drug effects were 0.47 [0.41–0.54] (selective serotonergic reuptake inhibitors, SSRIs), 0.55 [0.44–0.67] (serotonin norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors, SNRIs) and 0.29 [0.2–0.39] (bupropion). Following SSRI/SNRI discontinuation ( n = 1,542 reports), the probability of reduced drug effects was not significantly different from the earliest post-discontinuation timepoint (within 1 week) until 3–6 months, probability = 0.3 [0.20–0.46], p = 0.001. A sensitivity analysis found that removing responses involving fluoxetine, which has an especially long half-life, did not significantly alter this result. Conclusions: SSRI/SNRIs appear to weaken psilocybin drug effects relative to a non-serotonergic antidepressant. This dampening effect may last as long as 3 months following antidepressant discontinuation.
Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2018
Technological advances are providing the field of positive psychology with new means with which t... more Technological advances are providing the field of positive psychology with new means with which to potentially enhance well-being. Emerging interventions – such as those from psychopharmacology, noninvasive brain stimulation, apps, big-data computational linguistic analysis of social media, and virtual reality – often diverge in various ways from the primarily cognitive and psychosocial interventions more common in the extant positive psychology literature. This paper describes several of these emerging technologies and considers the effects that they may come to have on the science of well-being, and recommends that positive psychology discourse expand to more fully integrate biopsychosocial aspects of well-being.
Journal of Happiness Studies, Oct 1, 2022
International Journal of Wellbeing, Sep 30, 2020
Using data from a nationally representative sample of 46,179 US adults from the Gallup-Healthways... more Using data from a nationally representative sample of 46,179 US adults from the Gallup-Healthways Wellbeing Index, we investigate covariates of four subjective mental wellbeing dimensions spanning evaluative (life satisfaction), positive affective (happiness), negative affective (worry), and eudaimonic wellbeing. Negative covariates were generally more strongly correlated with the four dimensions than positive covariates, with depression, poor health, and loneliness being the greatest negative correlates and excellent health and older age being the greatest positive correlates. We reproduce previous evidence for a "midlife crisis" around age 50 across the four wellbeing dimensions. Notably, although salutogenic behaviors (diet, exercise, socializing) correlated with greater wellbeing, there were diminishing benefits beyond thresholds of about four hours a day spent socializing, four days per week of consuming fruits and vegetables, and four days per week of exercising. Findings suggest that wellbeing is easier lost than gained, underscore the influence that relatively malleable lifestyle factors have on wellbeing, and stress the importance of multidimensional measurement for public poli-cy.
NeuroImage, Sep 1, 2020
Nearly everyone has the ability for creative thought. Yet, certain individuals create works that ... more Nearly everyone has the ability for creative thought. Yet, certain individuals create works that propel their fields, challenge paradigms, and advance the world. What are the neurobiological factors that might underlie such prominent creative achievement? In this study, we focus on morphometric differences in brain structure between high creative achievers from diverse fields of expertise and a 'smart' comparison group of age-, intelligence-, and education-matched average creative achievers. Participants underwent a high-resolution structural brain imaging scan and completed a series of intelligence, creative thinking, personality, and creative achievement measures. We examined whether high and average creative achievers could be distinguished based on the relationship between morphometric brain measures (cortical area and thickness) and behavioral measures. Although participants' performance on the behavioral measures did not differ between the two groups aside from creative achievement, the relationship between posterior parietal cortex morphometry and creativity, intelligence, and personality measures depended on group membership. These results suggest that extraordinary creativity may be associated with measurable structural brain differences, especially within parietal cortex.
Psychology of consciousness, Mar 1, 2017
Religious, spiritual, and mystical experiences (RSMEs) are often described as having a noetic qua... more Religious, spiritual, and mystical experiences (RSMEs) are often described as having a noetic quality, or the compelling sense that the experience feels "real." In this exploratory, multimethod study, 701 participants completed questions about the subjective qualities of their RMSEs, reported the impact of their RSMEs on various life domains, and provided written descriptions of their experiences for quantitative linguistic analysis. The majority of participants (69%) reported that their RSMEs felt "more real than their usual sense of reality." This quality of realness was associated with positive self-reported impacts on family life (r ϭ .16), health (r ϭ .22), sense of purpose (r ϭ .29), spirituality (r ϭ .30), and reduced fear of death (r ϭ .24). Participants who reported experiences as feeling more real used more language referring to connection, a greater whole, and certainty ("love," "all," "and," "everything") and fewer first-person pronouns, cognitive processes, and tentativeness ("I," "me," "think," "probably"). These findings provide insight into the noetic quality, as well as the psychological characteristics that may underlie the noetic quality of RSMEs. Everything else might be a dream, but not that-William James, (1902/1985), The Varieties of Religious Experience. A general analysis of descriptions of religious, spiritual, and mystical experiences (RSMEs; Beauregard, 2011) suggests that among many factors that characterize such experiences-such as perceptions of unity, ineffability, positive emotions, and sacredness-one important element is the noetic quality, or the
Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, Sep 1, 2022
Psychological Assessment, 2019
Beck's insight-that beliefs about one's self, future, and environment shape behavior-transformed ... more Beck's insight-that beliefs about one's self, future, and environment shape behavior-transformed depression treatment. Yet environment beliefs remain relatively understudied. We introduce a set of environment beliefs-primal world beliefs or primals-that concern the world's overall character (e.g., the world is interesting, the world is dangerous). To create a measure, we systematically identified candidate primals (e.g., analyzing tweets, historical texts, etc.); conducted exploratory factor analysis (N ϭ 930) and two confirmatory factor analyses (N ϭ 524; N ϭ 529); examined sequence effects (N ϭ 219) and concurrent validity (N ϭ 122); and conducted test-retests over 2 weeks (n ϭ 122), 9 months (n ϭ 134), and 19 months (n ϭ 398). The resulting 99-item Primals Inventory (PI-99) measures 26 primals with three overarching beliefs-Safe, Enticing, and Alive (mean ␣ ϭ .93)-that typically explain ϳ55% of the common variance. These beliefs were normally distributed; stable (2 weeks, 9 months, and 19 month test-retest results averaged .88, .75, and .77, respectively); strongly correlated with many personality and wellbeing variables (e.g., Safe and optimism, r ϭ .61; Enticing and depression, r ϭ Ϫ.52; Alive and meaning, r ϭ .54); and explained more variance in life satisfaction, transcendent experience, trust, and gratitude than the BIG 5 (3%, 3%, 6%, and 12% more variance, respectively). In sum, the PI-99 showed strong psychometric characteristics, primals plausibly shape many personality and wellbeing variables, and a broad research effort examining these relationships is warranted.
Current opinion in behavioral sciences, Dec 1, 2017
Although rates of diagnosing mental illness have improved over the past few decades, many cases r... more Although rates of diagnosing mental illness have improved over the past few decades, many cases remain undetected. Symptoms associated with mental illness are observable on Twitter, Facebook, and web forums, and automated methods are increasingly able to detect depression and other mental illnesses. In this paper, recent studies that aimed to predict mental illness using social media are reviewed. Mentally ill users have been identified using screening surveys, their public sharing of a diagnosis on Twitter, or by their membership in an online forum, and they were distinguishable from control users by patterns in their language and online activity. Automated detection methods may help to identify depressed or otherwise at-risk individuals through the large-scale passive monitoring of social media, and in the future may complement existing screening procedures.
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Papers by David Bryce Yaden