Andreas Krabbe, MSc
Åbo Akademi University
Speaker Bio
My name is Andreas Krabbe. I am a doctoral student in Psychology at Åbo Akademi University, Finland. My research interests include clinical and cognitive neuroscience as well as psychology, with a focus on the effects of psychedelics on brain function and mental health, especially psychological flexibility. I hold a Master of Science degree in Clinical Neuroscience from Turku University, Finland, and a Master of Science degree in Cognitive Neuroscience from University of Skövde, Sweden. I also hold a Master of Social Science degree in Psychology from Linköping University, Sweden, where I developed my passion for studying the human mind and behavior during my Bachelor degree in psychology. Additionally, I have completed a Bachelor of Culture and Arts, Cultural Management, Arcada, Helsinki Finland. I am currently the coordinator of the Psychedelics Research Network (PRN) at Åbo Akademi University, a multidisciplinary group of researchers and students who aim to advance the scientific understanding of psychedelics and their potential applications in medicine and society. I believe that the human mind is best understood through an integrative multidisciplinary approach.
ICPR 2024 Abstract
Acceptance as a possible link between past psychedelic experience and psychological flexibility
Increased psychological flexibility (PF) might underlie the enduring positive effects of psychedelic experiences on mental well-being. Most research treats PF as a single construct, but PF and its opposite, psychological inflexibility (PI) can both be argued to consist of six components.
How are the different components of PF and PI associated with past psychedelic experiences and well-being?
We conducted a cross-sectional online survey including 629 participants with experience of classical psychedelics. We used network analysis to measure how features of a single psychedelic experience (mystical-type features and psychological insights), measured in retrospect, are associated with different components of PF/PI as well as with mental well-being and ill-being. We also performed mediation analyses to examine the extent to which PF mediated the effects of psychological insight on well-being/ill-being.
The network analysis showed that psychological insight was associated with the PF component Acceptance, while PF components Values, Committed Action, and Defusion were associated with well-being. PI, in turn, could not be reliably distinguished from ill-being in community detection. Mediation analyses showed that PF mediates the effects of psychological insight on well-being and ill-being (ps < .001).
In sum, the results indicate that acceptance may function as a bridge between psychological insights during a past psychedelic experience and other components of PF and wellbeing. PI, by contrast, may be less useful as a construct, as it could not be distinguished from ill-being. The findings demonstrate the importance of treating PF/PI as multidimensional constructs.