Investigating the Therapeutic Outcomes of Psychedelics in individuals with OCD

Information for Participants
 
What is this study about? This is an invitation for you to participate in a research project being conducted at the University of Wollongong for a student research project. The purpose of this research is to investigate individuals with OCD experiences of psychedelic use and the changes they encountered. This study aims to understand the potential therapeutic benefits of psychedelics within the treatment of OCD and the positive and/or negative changes experienced in personal use.
 
Who is conducting the study? The following researchers are conducting the study:
 
Dr Sam Moreton
Career Development Fellow/Associate Lecturer
School of Psychology
University of Wollongong
smoreton@uow.edu.au		 Georgia Baker
Clinical Masters Student
School of Psychology
University of Wollongong
gb560@uowmail.edu.au
 
 
Can I participate? To participate in the current study, you must meet the following requirements:
  • Be at least 18 years old.
  • Can read, write, and speak English fluently.
  • Are a citizen of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Unites Kingdom or United States
  • Have been professionally diagnosed with OCD
  • Have had at least one psychedelic experience. Classic Psychedelics under investigation include LSD, DMT, Psilocybin (the psychoactive substance in Magic Mushrooms), Ayahuasca and Mescaline WHILE experiencing OCD symptoms
  • Use of psychedelics resulted in a change (improvement or worsening) of OCD symptoms
If you complete the online survey we cannot necessarily guarantee you a place in the study due to limited spots.
What will I be asked to do? This study involves completion of an initial online questionnaire and then participating in remote semi-structured interviews with a researcher which will take approximately 60-90 minutes to complete. The study can be conducted via ZOOM in a location convenient to you on a device such as a desktop, laptop, or mobile.
What types of questions will be asked? To express your interest in being interviewed, you will first complete a short questionnaire asking a series of questions in relation to demographic and the participation criteria above. Ethnicity data will be collected to ensure we can appropriately understand the diversity within our sample. You will also be asked to outline a few details of your psychedelic experience (For example, answer which type of psychedelic drug you took) and diagnosis.  

As part of the interview stage you will be asked questions about your current and past OCD symptoms and use of psychedelics, such as:
  • What OCD symptoms did you experience prior to your psychedelic use?
  • For what purpose did you use psychedelics?
  • What was your acute experience with psychedelics like?
  • Did you find the psychedelic helpful/unhelpful to your OCD symptoms?

As the interview is semi-structured, your answers may be further explored or prompted. You are not required to answer any questions you do not wish to and can indicate this in the interview.
 
What risks are involved? It is possible that some questions within the interview will raise an emotional response from past experiences and you may find some of the questions confronting. You will also be asked questions surrounding the topics of mental health diagnoses.
After completing the interview, the opportunity for an exit interview will be provided to debrief anything that arose.
If you need support, there are a variety of free confidential telephone and support services internationally, listed as follows:
Australia
Lifeline: 13 11 14
BeyondBlue: 1300 22 4636
Canada:
TalkSuicide Canada: 1-833-456-4566
Crisis Call Centre: (800) 273 8255  
New Zealand:
Lifeline: 0800 543 354  or free text 4357 (HELP)
Suicide Crisis Helpline: 0508 828 865 (0508 TAUTOKO)
United Kingdom
Samaritans Helpline: 116 123
SANEline: 0300 304 7000
United States
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255
Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741
International
https://findahelpline.com/i/iasp
Lifeline International: +61 6 215 9400
Do I have to participate, and can I withdraw from the study?
  • Participating in this study is entirely voluntary. You are not under any obligation to consent. Even if you consent at the beginning of the study, you can withdraw at any time during the questionnaire or interview. This will not affect your relationship with the researchers or the University of Wollongong.
  • Consent will be obtained at the beginning of the study when submitting your expression of interest via the questionnaire. Consent will be obtained again when beginning interview.
  • You can withdraw from the study by closing the browser on your device. If you withdraw before completing the expression of interest, you will not receive any further contact for the study and any partially saved response will be disposed of. If there is no longer places available in the study but you have completed the online questionnaire, you will be informed via email and your responses will be disposed of.
  • You can withdraw your expression of interest by contacting the researcher Georgia Baker (gb560@uowmail.edu.au) or indicating so when contacted to set up interview
  • You can withdraw at any point during the interview process by verbally expressing your desire to discontinue to the researcher or exiting the ZOOM, in this case your information and responses will not be used in the data or final study and will be disposed of.
  • Once you complete the interview, your responses will be de-identified and coded. Your recording cannot be reviewed at the end of the interview as the video will be immediately deleted. Your responses cannot be altered after the interview in order to hold to the structure of semi-structured interviews, transcripts cannot be altered after the interview as it does not allow the researcher to query or prompt any altered responses If you wish to withdraw your data you can email the researcher (Georgia Baker). Your data can be withdrawn whilst it is in the data gathering and analysis phase.
  • Once the study is written into the final report the data cannot be withdrawn or changed.
What will happen with my responses and are they confidential?
  • Your responses on the online questionnaire will be stored online in a program called Qualtrics, which contains a secure and password-protected server. These responses will be utilised as data alongside your response within the interview component. Should you choose to withdraw from the study after partial or full completion of the questionnaire, your responses will be disposed of.  
  • After researchers have contacted you for the second component of the study, the data collected in the online questionnaire will be de-identified and stored in a secure UOW S3 Storage Grid database. 
  • The audio and video of your interview will be recorded, the video will then be immediately deleted after the interview and only the audio-recording will be retained. The audio-recording will then be stored in a secure UOW S3 Storage Grid database.
  • De-identified audio files will be transcribed using Otter.ai, a speech to transcription application. Otter.ai is a US based company providing high levels of security for data. During the transcription phase, your interview data will be stored offshore but will not contain any identifiable data.
  • Transcript files will then be stored in a secure UOW S3 Storage Grid database, transcriptions will then be thematically analysed. No original audio, identifiable responses or quotations will be used in the final study.
  • Transcripts data will be retained for 5 years before it is destroyed. Data from the study will be reported in a masters thesis and may be submitted for publication in academic journals.
What is the benefit? Each participant in the semi-structured interview will be provided with a $50 AUD amazon voucher reward to compensate them for their time and contribution. This study will investigate the effects of psychedelic substances on individuals’ OCD symptoms, which may be helpful to inform future treatment and research avenues. You may also find positive benefits from reflection upon your own psychedelic experience.
How do I participate, and can I tell others? If you are ready to participate,  please click the next button below to be taken to the consent form before completing the expression of interest survey questions. As there are questions requiring the disclosure of drug use (which may be illegal in your country of origin) please complete the questionnaire in a private location on a secure device. Yes, you are more than welcome to share this study with others.
I want to know more information? If you would like to know any further information prior to or at any stage during the study, please feel free to contact Dr Sam Moreton at smoreton@uow.edu.au  or 4221 5379.
Ethical Review/Complaints This study has been reviewed and approved by the Social Sciences Human Research Ethics Committee at the University of Wollongong (2030/020). If you have any concerns or complaints about the way this research is conducted you can contact the UOW Ethics Officer, +61 2 4239 2191 or email uow-humanethics@uow.edu.au.