Study on marijuana use and yoga finds that set and setting can have an impact on mental health

A newly published study finds that people who practice yoga after consuming marijuana experience improved mindfulness and mystique, suggesting that environment and behavior may play an important role in modulating a person’s cannabis experience .

Published as a psychology dissertation from the University of British Columbia, the paper aimed to examine “the influence of contextual factors during cannabis use on well-being outcomes.” As author Sarah Elizabeth Ann Daniels wrote, such considerations are common in the field of psychedelic therapy, but less so in cannabis.

“When using other psychoactive medications to treat mental illness, researchers pay particular attention to contextual factors beyond the direct drug effects, such as mindset, attitude and behavior, because there is substantial evidence that these factors significantly influence therapeutic outcomes can.” Daniels remarked. “These factors are rarely considered in therapeutic cannabis use.”

The study’s results “generally suggest that what you do while experiencing cannabis effects matters,” the study concludes. “In line with psychedelics, this study supports the concept that attitude and attitude during cannabis use can significantly influence the therapeutic benefits of the drug.”

To test whether context influences a person’s cannabis experience, Daniels had 47 participants self-administer cannabis twice, a week apart. During one session they practiced yoga. During the other time, they did what they would normally do when high. The most common activities were eating, watching TV or movies, doing housework, socializing, and pursuing hobbies.

Participants were assessed on criteria such as “mindfulness of the state,” “mystique of the experience,” and “affect of the state.”

State mindfulness measured “both traditional Buddhist and contemporary psychological models of mindfulness,” including awareness of both mental states and physical sensations. Mystical experience, on the other hand, referred to the feeling of experiencing eternity or the infinite, a feeling of peace and calm, or a loss of usual perception of time.

Daniels found significant improvements in respondents’ reported mindfulness when they practiced yoga with cannabis. Their mystical experience was also greater, although Daniels acknowledges that mysticism is more traditionally associated with psychedelic substances. “Although cannabis is not considered a traditional psychedelic,” she writes, “recent evidence suggests that it shares many similarities with altered states induced by psychedelics.”

When it comes to the state effect – essentially one’s emotion and mood – there was no significant difference between yoga and non-yoga sessions.

Examining the effects of set, setting and other variables, referred to in the paper as “extra-pharmacological factors,” is critical to understanding the therapeutic potential of cannabis, Daniels writes, noting that taking such factors into account helped clarify early research on psychedelics.

“Similar to studies of cannabis today, studies of psychedelics in the 1960s produced wildly different results,” the report said. “At that time, researchers began to explore and document the influence of set and setting on subjective drug effects, and how the results could be influenced by extra-pharmacological factors became a crucial consideration in studies of the effects of psychedelics and psychedelic psychotherapy. In fact, once the attitude and setting were addressed, the recorded psychedelic experiences changed from overwhelmingly negative to overwhelmingly positive.”

72 percent of participants (34) said they would combine cannabis and yoga again. Not only did yoga seem to improve their cannabis experience, but cannabis also seemed to increase their enjoyment of their yoga practice:

“The most commonly reported theme was improved body awareness (n = 15), which captured increased awareness of the body, movement and physical sensory experiences. For example, participants reported being more “in touch” or “in tune” with their body and its needs and feeling their body, sensations and sense of movement on a “deeper” level. They particularly emphasized that this was different from their usual (sober) experience of yoga, stretching or physical activity and that this experience represented an advantage or change from their non-cannabis experiences.”

Six participants had never practiced yoga before, while 30 said they practiced “rarely or sometimes.” Another 11 said they did yoga often or very often.

Gina Coleman/Weedmaps

“These results suggest that considering contextual factors and providing guidelines for therapeutic cannabis users can improve clinical outcomes when using cannabis to support mental health and well-being,” Daniels wrote.

The findings could have implications for how to best take advantage of cannabis’ potential benefits or even how to avoid potential risks. “Physicians have long described a knowledge gap regarding best practices when prescribing cannabis for therapeutic purposes,” the report said. “Providing specific behavioral instructions as well as psychoeducation about the role of set and setting can help maximize the benefits and minimize the harm of therapeutic cannabis use.” Due to the high acceptance of the yoga intervention, yoga or a similar mindful exercise can be a useful Be a recommendation.”

Daniels also suggested that the feeling of being “high” should not be ignored by researchers who want to understand how cannabis works.

“A typical trend in the pharmaceutical field when developing medicines based on traditional psychoactive herbal remedies (e.g. cannabis, psychedelics) is to eliminate the psychoactive effects. The focus is often on a biological mechanism, while the “high” is viewed as an unwanted side effect,” the study says. “The results of the current study provide further evidence of the intrinsic therapeutic value inherent in the altered states of consciousness caused by such psychoactive medications.”

The US government itself has cited the mind-altering potential of psychedelics as one of their biggest side effects. For example, a $27 million project announced in 2020 by the U.S. Department of Defense’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) was intended to work toward developing drugs that would act similarly to psychedelics, but without “significant side effects, including hallucinations.” . ”

The combination of marijuana and yoga is now nothing new in the cannabis community. Classes that combine the two have existed at least since the early years of legalization at the state level, and likely much longer. However, the reported benefits of these activities are largely anecdotal.

Back in 2018, US Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) even recommended marijuana and yoga (albeit done separately) as alternatives to opioids. “Marijuana, yoga and all sorts of other things that are homeopathic but are not addictive in this dangerous way,” she said.

This article originally appeared on Marijuana Moment.