Imprinting: expanding the extra-pharmacological model of psychedelic drug action to incorporate delayed influences of sets and settings

Summary & key facts

Researchers looked back at recordings and interviews from 26 people who got ketamine infusions for treatment-resistant depression. They found that things people were exposed to in the days before treatment — especially digital media like videos — sometimes showed up inside their ketamine experiences and changed how emotional or “mystical” those experiences felt. The team calls this delayed influence “imprinting.” The results are preliminary but suggest that what you do and see in the days before a psychedelic session can shape the session itself and possibly its benefits. More study is needed.

Key facts:

• The researchers reviewed treatment recordings and interviews from 26 people who received serial intravenous ketamine infusions for treatment-resistant depression between January 2021 and August 2022.
• In two detailed single-person examples, changing how much digital media the person viewed in the days before treatment changed the content of their ketamine sessions.
• When people had higher exposure to certain digital media in the days before treatment, their ketamine experiences showed fewer mystical or emotional qualities.
• Among the other 24 patients, researchers found eight more spontaneous reports where past environmental exposures appeared as visual hallucinations during ketamine sessions.
• The authors searched past studies and found similar delayed effects with other psychedelic drugs and links to how dreams incorporate recent experiences.
• The paper proposes the term imprinting to add a new idea to the existing model of set and setting. Imprinting describes how past environments can influence psychedelic experiences days later, and the authors say this is underrecognized and

Abstract

ClinicalTrials.gov, identifier NCT04701866.

Topics

Chemical synthesis and alkaloids Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior Psychedelics and Drug Studies

Categories

Clinical Psychology Psychology Social Sciences

Tags

Biochemistry Chemistry Clinical psychology Cognition Developmental psychology Gene Hallucinogen Imprinting (psychology) Internal medicine Ketamine Medicine Neuroscience Psilocybin Psychiatry Psychology Psychotherapist Receptor Serotonergic Serotonin

Substances

Ketamine Psilocybin

Conditions & symptoms

Depression Sadness or low mood