The psychedelic call: analysis of Australian Poisons Information Centre calls associated with classic psychedelics

Abstract

Introduction

The global use of certain classical psychedelics has increased in recent years, but little is known about their spectrum of toxicity within Australia. We aim to describe calls to New South Wales Poisons Information Centre relating to exposures to classical psychedelics including lysergic acid diethylamide, psilocybin, N,N-dimethyltryptamine, ayahuasca, mescaline and ibogaine.

Methods

This is a retrospective observational study of calls to New South Wales Poisons Information Centre between January 2014 and December 2022. We identified exposures to classical psychedelics within New South Wales Poisons Information Centre database and measured the annual number of exposures, source of call (hospital, health care worker, member of the public), co-ingested substances, clinical features and advice given.

Results

There were 737 calls related to relevant psychedelic exposures; 352 (47.8 per cent) to lysergic acid diethylamide, 347 (47.0 per cent) to psilocybin, 28 (3.8 per cent) to N,N-dimethyltryptamine, 4 (0.5 per cent) to ayahuasca, 4 (0.5 per cent) to mescaline and 2 (0.3 per cent) to ibogaine. Cases were predominantly male (77.2 per cent) and aged between 20 and 74 years (65.6 per cent). Psychedelic calls more than doubled from 45 in 2014 to 105 in 2022 and 625 (85 per cent) of all calls were either from or referred to hospital. Co-ingestion of psychedelics with another substance occurred in 249 (33.8 per cent) of calls and the most frequent clinical features related to single substance psychedelic exposures were hallucinations (27.6 per cent), gastrointestinal symptoms (21.7 per cent) and tachycardia (18.1 per cent). Seizures occurred in 2.9 per cent of single substance psychedelic exposures.

Discussion

Increasing incidence of psychedelic exposure calls, including those reporting significant toxicity, likely reflects increasing community use. This may in part be driven by increasing interest in psychedelic assisted psychotherapy trials subsequently increasing public awareness.

Conclusion

Relatively high poisoning severity contrasts with safety within clinical trials of psychedelic assisted psychotherapy that may relate to the uncontrolled nature of community use which is mitigated within clinical trial environments. Education about safe use may be useful.

Keywords:

• Psychedelics
• poisoning
• overdose
• lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD)
• psilocybin
• N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT)
• ayahuasca
• mescaline
• ibogaine

Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge Jared Brown for assisting with data retrieval.

Disclosure statement

Liknaitzky has received research funding from Incannex Healthcare Ltd, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, and Beckley Psytech, is a member of the Medical Advisory Board of Incannex Healthcare Ltd, and the Scientific Advisory Board of The MIND Foundation. He is a co-founder and Director of the Clarion Clinics. These organisations were not involved in any aspect of this paper, including the decision to write it, drafting the paper, or its publication.

Data availability statement

Data not available due to ethical restrictions.

Additional information

Funding

JB is supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Centre of Research Excellence in Medications Intelligence [ID: 1196900] and an NHMRC Investigator Grant [ID: 1196560].