Abstract

Psychedelics and related therapies have mostly been explored for their potential for positively impacting mental health. Meanwhile, several lines of evidence show that aspects of physical health, as well as behavioral health – behaviors like diet, physical activity and meditation, which are known to prevent, manage, even reverse chronic diseases – may also be affected by psychedelic experiences. A new area of psychedelic studies, named Behavioral Psychedelics, is emerging with the goal of exploring these associations and how they may be applied in future interventions targeting individuals, specific groups, or populations.

In this presentation, I will present the concept of Behavioral Psychedelics and provide an up to date state of the evidence in this area, based on existing data and new studies, some of which are being conducted at the University of Lisbon. Included are associations of ayahuasca use with public health indicators, the effects of participating in psychedelic ceremonies on health behaviors and their determinants, and a survey of practitioners’ perceptions on this topic. Finally I will describe how an international consortium is planning on surveying this topic more broadly, via the International Psychedelics and Health Behavior Change Study.