Age could play an important role in how psychedelic use relates to mental health, according to new research from the Department of Psychology at Durham University.
Researchers found that adults with a history of using classic psychedelics, such as psilocybin (magic mushrooms) and LSD, reported lower levels of anxiety and depression than non-users, but only in younger age groups. The associations became weaker with increasing age and were no longer evident among older adults.
The research comes amid growing scientific interest in the potential of psychedelic-assisted therapies for mental health conditions such as depression and anxiety.
Published in Scientific Reports, the Durham study analysed survey responses from 1,088 adults aged 18–55 and over. Participants were asked about their lifetime use of psychedelic substances and completed established measures of anxiety, depression, wellbeing and life satisfaction.
The study was led by Durham University PhD researcher Giammarco Di Gregorio under the supervision of Dr Marco Bocchio and Dr Michael Lengieza.
To gather their results, the researchers grouped participants according to whether they had used classic psychedelics, non-classic psychedelics such as ketamine or MDMA, a combination of both, or neither. They found that people in their twenties and early thirties who had used classic psychedelics reported lower anxiety and depression scores than comparable non-users. The association gradually declined with age, and the findings remained even after researchers accounted for how often people used psychedelics, when they last used them and their typical dosage.
Di Gregorio said: “Age remains a relatively underexplored factor in psychedelic research. There’s growing evidence that younger people tend to have more intense, mystical-type experiences while on psychedelics. Our study suggests this may matter for mental health. The link between classic psychedelic use and lower anxiety and depression was strongest in younger adults and faded with age, and the mystical experiences younger users reported helped to explain that pattern.”
Dr Bocchio added: “One of the strengths of this study is that it allowed us to examine psychedelic use and mental health associations in a large sample with a broad age range, which can be difficult to achieve in clinical trials. By analysing data from more than 1,000 participants, we were able to identify age-related patterns that might otherwise be missed.
“A novelty of our study was the inclusion of a comparison group of people who had used ‘non-classic psychedelics’, such as ketamine or MDMA, but not classic psychedelics. This helped us test whether the patterns we observed were specific to classic psychedelics, rather than reflecting broader differences between people who are drawn to psychoactive substances and altered states of consciousness.”
The team stresses that the findings do not establish a causal relationship between psychedelic use and mental health. The study was observational and relied on participants reporting their own experiences, so the researchers cannot determine whether psychedelic use directly led to differences in mental health. Instead, it identifies an association between lifetime psychedelic use and current mental health, while highlighting age as an important factor that should be explored in future research.
Dr Bocchio said: “While our study cannot establish cause and effect, it provides an important starting point for understanding how age might shape the relationship between psychedelic experiences and mental health, and offers clues that can be explored in future clinical research.”
Researchers believe the findings could help guide future clinical studies exploring psychedelic-assisted therapies, and say age should be considered when assessing who may benefit most from such treatments.
The team now hopes to build on the work through longer-term studies that track people before and after psychedelic experiences. This could help researchers better understand how age influences outcomes over time and whether the patterns seen in this study are also present in clinical settings.
