Classic hallucinogen drug use likely peaks at 18-25 years of age with use being shown to reach around 7%. Classic hallucinogens like LSD may have fewer harms and lower dependence rates. The current study looks at relations between impulsivity, sensation seeking, and emotion regulation and hallucinogen use among college students and high-risk inpatient adolescents.
Data was taken from a psychology department research pool and an inpatient psychiatric hospital. There were 10,251 college students and 200 adolescent inpatient participants. Sensation seeking was measured by assessing experience and risk seeking. Impulsivity was assessed by looking at negative urgency during several scenarios. Emotional dysregulation measured difficulties among participants with emotion regulation. Finally, Hallucinogen use was assessed in the college sample by asking about every having used, early initiation of use, and lifetime frequency of use. In the adolescent sample, hallucinogen use was rarely endorsed so researchers expanded the definition to include Dextromethorphan (DXM). DXM is legal, relatively accessible, and relatively inexpensive. Adolescents were asked if they had used a substance to get high. 17 participants among the sample reported a history of use.
Results showed for the college sample, older and male participants were most likely to report hallucinogen use along with more instances of use. Risk seeking, experience seeking, negative urgency, Lack of Premeditation, and lack of perseverance were all associated with hallucinogen use. Difficulty with goals, difficulty with impulses, and lack of clarity were also associate with hallucinogen use. Among adolescents, there was no age or sex related to use and risk seeking was associated with hallucinogen use. Lack of premeditation and difficulty with impulses were found to be associated with use. The findings show the need for more research to identify who is mostly likely to misuse hallucinogens. This need is even greater when considering the recent research on the positive benefits of therapeutic hallucinogen use.
Take Away: The current study looks at relations between impulsivity, sensation seeking, and emotion regulation and hallucinogen use among college students and high-risk inpatient adolescents. There were 10,251 college students included and 200 adolescent inpatient participants. Measures included sensation seeking, impulsivity, emotional dysregulation, and hallucinogen use. In the adolescent sample, hallucinogen use was rarely endorsed so researchers expanded the definition to include Dextromethorphan (DXM). 17 participants among the sample reported a history of use. Results showed for the college sample, older and male participants were most likely to report hallucinogen use along with more instances of use. Among adolescents, there was no age or sex related to use and only risk seeking was associated with hallucinogen use. Lack of premeditation and difficulty with impulses were found to be associated with hallucinogen use. The need for more research on this topic has increased as recent research has discovered the potential positive benefits of therapeutic hallucinogen use.