A qualitative analysis of the psychedelic mushroom come-up and come-down.

ABSTRACT: Psychedelic therapy has the potential to become a revolutionary and transdiagnostic mental health treatment, yielding enduring benefits that are often attributed to the experiences that coincide with peak psychedelic effects. However, there may be an underrecognized temporal structure to this process that helps explain why psychedelic and related altered states of consciousness can have an initially distressing but ultimately distress-resolving effect. Here we present a qualitative analysis of the self-reported 'come-up' or onset phase, and 'come-down' or falling phase, of the psychedelic experience. Focusing on psilocybin or psilocybin-containing mushroom experience reports submitted to Erowid.org, we use phenomenological, thematic content and word frequency analysis to show that the come

SUBMITTER: Brouwer A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11802880 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature